The Lovegood Way
by Komillia
Summary: They are best friends first. Mother and daughter second. At least that's the Lovegood way. HarryLuna, post DH and epilogue
1. Attempting normality

**The Lovegood Way  
Chapter 1: Attempting normality**

This is my first attempt at a HP fanfic since DH was released. The inspiration came from the TV show Gilmore Girls and reading a lot of responses regarding the epilogue in DH. I'm a pretty dedicated H/L shipper, who doesn't consider it sunk just because Harry married Ginny and had three kids or because Luna married Rolf Scamander according to JKR's interviews. I've done my share of AU stories already (I hope the readers of Verso will accept my sincere apology for not updating in a long time) so I thought that I would try writing H/L set after the epilogue. I hope that you will enjoy this and any feedback is appreciated!

* * *

Teddy Lupin had brought Victoire Weasley to The Three Broomsticks many times. When he was still at Hogwarts they used to go there all the time with their friends. Even now in the summer it felt only natural for them to meet up there before heading off somewhere else. But one day near the end of the summer, when he was holding Victoire's hand and preparing to leave The Three Broomsticks, he suddenly stopped and bumped his foot into the table leg in the process.

"What's wrong?" Victoire asked.

Holding back a curse, Teddy just winced and ignored the pain in his foot. Instead he looked up and towards the corner of the pub.

"I recognize that girl," he answered.

Victoire looked into the same direction as Teddy. Near the corner was a small table and sitting over there was a girl. Her long, blonde hair that fell over her shoulders as she practically leaned into the book she was reading. Victoire almost found it a little unusual how the girl's large, blue eyes were so fixated on the book like it was all that mattered to the girl.

"I saw a book or something that she wrote... her picture was on it," Teddy continued.

"Teddy, she looks like she's fifteen or something." Victoire shook her head. "She couldn't have written a book."

"No, it really looked like it was her on the picture on the back of the book," Teddy insisted, still looking at the girl. "The book was... I can't remember, 'beasts and why they can exist' or something."

The girl was seemingly unaware of how there were two people openly talking about and looking at her. Instead she went on just as before, reading the book as if she was engulfed by it. Occasionally she reached for a glass of gillywater standing on the table but other than that her movements were strictly confined to turning the pages of her book.

"We've probably seen her at Hogwarts before," Victoire reasoned. "Your grandmother is waiting, we should get going."

Teddy felt Victoire squeeze his hand lightly and knew that it was time to go. Still, as they walked out of The Three Broomsticks, he was still convinced that he had seen that girl's picture on the back of a book.

Minutes passed without anything interesting happening in the tavern. Customers came and left, none of them arriving or leaving in any way that caught the blonde girl's attention. Half an hour later the door opened and another customer entered The Three Broomsticks. Had Teddy Lupin stayed for another half an hour and seen her, he would have known that she was the woman whose picture he had seen on the back of a book. The resemblance between the woman and the girl in the corner was clear, they had the same hair colour, their faces looked similar and their eyes had the same shape. On a closer look one would have seen that the woman's eyes were silver and her hair was slightly wavy while the girl's was completely straight.

Spotting the person she was looking for, the woman headed straight to the corner where the girl sat. The girl looked up upon hearing the footsteps.

"Mum, you're here already?" the girl asked, almost surprised.

Her mother smiled at her and sat down on the chair opposite of hers.

"I think I got everything I need now," she replied. "I met up with my source at the Hog's Head. It's incredible how much of the Goblin rebellion was covered up... and no one has ever questioned it before. I think I am on my way of uncovering the truth about it."

The girl closed her book and set it aside.

"Victoire Weasley and her boyfriend were here before and they kept looking at me," she told. "I think they were talking about me too."

"Oh. Did they tell you why?"

The girl shrugged. "No, they just left."

Her mother leaned forward and onto the table. "Maybe they'll send you an owl saying 'We have been watching you, we know where you live'."

"...and we would just like to say that you have lovely curtains," the girl finished, smiling.

The owner of the pub, Madam Rosmerta recognized a new customer when she saw one. She walked over the table where mother and daughter sat.

"What can I get you today, dear?" she asked automatically.

But before anyone had the chance to say anything else, Madam Rosmerta took her first proper look at her two customers. She recognized them immediately and a much warmer smile appeared on her weary face.

"If it's not the Lovegoods!" she exclaimed. "What a lovely surprise to see you two here! I would have thought that you would still be travelling around Asia or somewhere!"

"We came back yesterday," the mother informed. "Lacus starts school again in a few days."

"And after that you are off to some exotic place again?" Rosmerta asked. "You have probably been all around the world already, travelling ever since you left school and never settling down. Have you decided where you are going next?"

"No," the mother answered, her lips curving into a smile. "Not going anywhere this time... I'm going to stay here for a while."

Rosmerta looked surprised at her answer, but quickly regained her composure and returned the smile.

"Well, Luna Lovegood... I think it's about time that you did that. A person needs to come back home now and then and we're glad to see you back. Now, you two stay right here, I'll get you another gillywater."

Luna watched Rosmerta leave and then turned to face her daughter again.

"She remembers what I used to drink whenever I came here," she said with a hint of surprise in her voice.

Lacus smiled at her mother, reaching for her own glass of gillywater.

"Well, it's not like she doesn't have something to remind her."

* * *

_She was dreaming of flying saucers and cows grazing on the surface of the moon. Out of the flying saucers came aliens with green tentacles and the cows stopped their grazing to greet them, dancing to Indian temple chants._

Lacus sat up quickly in her bed, panting. She wasn't dreaming. The aliens and the cows were luckily only a part of her dream but the Indian temple chants were not. Glancing to her left, her eyes settled on her bedroom door. The door itself was closed but that did not mean that it shut all the noise out. Taking a deep breath, Lacus threw the duvet off her and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. She slipped her feet into a pair of bunny slippers and yawned as she dragged herself towards the door.

As she opened it, the music practically blasted into her room. It was a mixture of flutes and village women chanting, in a way that made Lacus feel slightly queasy, with the occasional fast and erratic drum beat. Making a face, Lacus stepped out her room.

She entered the kitchen, which was short of a complete mess that morning. Pots and pans lay stacked in the sink. Bags of flour, sugar and more exotic ginger and cardamom stood on the table along with mysterious jars labelled in Chinese and half of the contents of the fridge. In the middle of the kitchen was Luna. She was holding a large bowl in her arms, mixing the ingredients as she danced to the music. Lacus noticed how there were smudges of flour over her face and her clothes and how she was leaving traces of flour in the path of her dance.

"Morning mum," Lacus yawned.

It was a good thing that Luna was in the middle of a twirl; otherwise she would have never even heard Lacus because of the music. Stopping with her twirling, Luna smiled at Lacus.

"Good morning!" she chirped cheerfully. "Did you sleep well?"

Lacus made a face.

"Splendidly," she answered and covered her mouth as she yawned again. She walked over to the kitchen table and, after lifting up a jar with brown powder, sat down on a chair. "What's for breakfast?"

"Baozi," Luna replied, smiling wider. "Look!"

Waltzing over to Lacus, Luna lowered the bowl so that Lacus could see what was in it. Lacus had a very clear idea about what baozi was. She had it often last time they had travelled to China. To her it was a white, somewhat sweet steamed bun that bore no resemblance to the brown, lumpy liquid in the bowl. The strong smelled of ginger filled her nostrils.

"Are baozi supposed to have cardamom and ginger?" Lacus questioned, glancing at the jars on the table next to her.

Shrugging, Luna began to stir in the bowl again.

"I thought I'd try it and see what it tastes like."

Smiling, Lacus left her mother to keep working on making baozi and walked over to the cupboard. Her mother was always like that, she never wanted to follow a recipe to every last detail. She preferred experimenting with food, sometimes it worked out for the better but very often for the worst. It was the nice part about often travelling and being away from the house, it kept Luna from experimenting too much with their meals.

Opening the cupboard, Lacus scouted a box of cereal kept in the back. Taking the box out, she returned to the chair she had been sitting on before.

"So you know what came this morning?" Luna asked.

Popping a pink, snitch shaped cereal into her mouth, Lacus shook her head. Luna stopped stirring and set down the bowl on the table. She walked around the table and towards the shelves hanging on the wall. From there she pulled out a small package wrapped in brown paper.

"What is it?" Lacus wondered, looking at the package curiously.

Luna didn't answer her question; she pushed at the package and nodded at Lacus. Putting aside the cereal box, Lacus began to open the package. She pulled off the brown paper and once it was off she saw a small stack of cards tied together with a thin piece of string. The cards were black and the silver, shimmering text read:

_Luna Lovegood  
Editor of the Quibbler_

"Wow," Lacus breathed. "Those are some shiny business cards."

Propping her elbows against the surface of the table, Luna leaned over a bag of flour to look at the business cards.

"I guess that makes it official doesn't it?" she smiled. "I'm finally going to work there."

Lacus looked up at her mother. The truth was that Luna could have started to work at The Quibbler years ago. From what Lacus had been told, her grandfather Xenophilius Lovegood died when Luna was barely of age. She had inherited the business from her father but instead of starting to work there she had left it in the hands of a capable staff and gone travelling around the world. It was because of that decision that Luna had ended up on some island in the Pacific Ocean, met Rolf Scamander and married him. Lacus had been born out of that marriage though she could not remember the time her parents were together. They were divorced since several years back and Luna had just kept travelling with Lacus after that. Even when Lacus started to attend Hogwarts Luna had not stopped her travelling, something that worked well with her job as a naturalist.

It was just a week ago Luna had told her that she had accepted the job as the editor of The Quibbler after the previous one had retired. As much as it puzzled Lacus, she guessed that her mother had decided that she had travelled enough and it was time to settle down. It was something that Lacus thought most people did when they got married and had kids rather than after, but with her mother nothing was conventional anyway.

"So when do you start?" Lacus asked.

"I thought I'd go into the office tomorrow, just to see how things are," Luna answered. "We could get your school supplies too. I have so many ideas to run by the staff, especially about our latest snorkack findings... I'd like to run a series of articles on where they have been spotted and theories of their origins..."

Her musings were interrupted as the door bell rang. Lacus exchanged a look with Luna, both of them looking equally surprised. During the school year Lacus stayed at Hogwarts and whenever she was on holiday she always followed Luna wherever she was going. They rarely spent time in the cottage they called home, much less hearing someone ring their door bell.

"Oh, I didn't know someone was coming over."

Luna wiped off her hands with a towel. Lacus cast a worried glance at her.

"I even didn't know we had a door bell," she admitted honestly.

She waited in the kitchen while Luna left the kitchen to answer the door. Before she even had a chance to think about whom it might be, she heard the door open and an all too familiar voice reached her ears.

"Oh goodness. Did the kitchen blow up?"

"Good morning, Mrs. Longbottom."

Lacus jumped up from the chair just as the sound of heavy heels sounded against the wooden floor. A few moments later Augusta Longbottom entered the kitchen, dressed in her usual green robes and with the hat with the stuffed vulture. Upon seeing Lacus she smiled.

"Oh hello, Lacus!" she greeted cheerfully, reaching out her arms and giving Lacus a hug. "How are you?"

Mrs. Longbottom had looked the same for as long as Lacus could remember, not to mention worn the hat with the stuffed vulture. It had a distinct smell to it that Lacus was not too fond of, but she forced herself to smile anyway when Mrs. Longbottom released her from the hug.

"I'm fine, and you?" she asked in return as Luna came back into the kitchen.

"Oh, life goes on as usual," Mrs. Longbottom answered with a wave. "The weather has been nice this summer, a little too hot sometimes... I haven't had much to do, had I known you girls were back then I would have come over to see you sooner. I hope you two are happy with the way the house has been kept, I personally planted the roses in the garden."

Lacus nodded.

"The roses look great," she complimented.

Mrs. Longbottom looked pleased to her that. The cottage Lacus and Luna in did not really belong to them, but to her. Mrs. Longbottom lived in a grander and bigger house two miles away from the cottage. Lacus was not sure how they had come to live in the cottage but she knew that Luna and Mrs. Longbottom's son knew each other from their time at Hogwarts and that Luna had rented this cottage from the Longbottoms even before she got married. As their landlady Mrs. Longbottom looked after the cottage while they were away, which was pretty much all year. Now that Lacus thought about it she couldn't remember one time when she and her mother had stayed in the cottage more than one week at the time.

Stepping back, Mrs Longbottom took a good look at Lacus.

"My, I swear you get taller every time I see you. You must get that from your father. But you are too skinny! All this travelling that you do, it keeps you from getting good, filling food on table at the end of the day. Luna, you don't feed the child well enough!"

Mrs. Longbottom turned around to Luna, waiting for some explanation. Luna stood there, covered in flour all over and could only smile.

"I'm making baozi," she told, picking up the bowl and continued to stir. "You are more than welcome to stay. I think they will be done in an hour or so."

Mrs. Longbottom looked into the bowl and saw the lumpy, brown goo that was the dough.

"No thank you dear, I've already had breakfast," she replied. "And do you really have time to stand here and bake?"

Luna looked up at Mrs. Longbottom and Lacus shared the feeling of not knowing what the older woman was talking about.

"Why wouldn't I have the time?" Luna asked.

"Well, shouldn't you be in Diagon Alley getting the supplies that Lacus need for school?" Mrs. Longbottom questioned.

"We were thinking about going tomorrow," Lacus answered. "Mum is heading to the Quibbler's office anyway."

Mrs. Longbottom stared at Lacus, her eyes wide in shock.

"Tomorrow is Sunday!" she pointed out. "The shops won't be open then and school starts on Monday!"

Lacus dropped her jaw, staring back at Mrs. Longbottom in shock. A few moments later her brain started to function again and she rushed back into her bedroom and closed the door after her. She rushed to the trunk standing in the corner of the room, still unpacked and sandy from being dragged across the beach in Sardinia. As she rummaged through her trunk for something to wear, she heard her mother's and Mrs. Longbottom's voices in the kitchen.

"Goodness, you really should have gone and gotten her supplies days ago!"

"It's not too late now. I'm already dressed and can go any time."

"Luna, you can't wear that, you're covered in flour. Go and change into something quick. I guess I'll be going now, you girls need to hurry anyway."

Lacus did not hear the rest of the conversation. Finding a clean pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt, she quickly put them on. After that she stumbled out of her room trying to put her socks on at the same time.

Luna had left the kitchen once Lacus came out and only Mrs. Longbottom was standing there.

"Your mother went upstairs to change," she informed, with a hint of triumph in her voice.

Lacus smiled sheepishly. Mrs. Longbottom was a forceful woman who was used to getting things done her way.

"Anyway, I shall be going now," Mrs. Longbottom continued. "Do you and your mother have any plans for tomorrow night?"

Lacus thought for a while.

"No, I don't think so."

"Good, I'll be expecting you two for dinner at my house at seven o'clock then," Mrs. Longbottom decided. "Neville will be there as well."

Upon hearing the mention of Neville, Lacus lit up.

"Really? It will be great seeing him again."

Mrs. Longbottom smiled and patted Lacus on the shoulder. She used to pat her on the head all the time but in the last few years Lacus had grown so tall that patting her on the head looked out of place.

"See you tomorrow night, Lacus. Tell your mother I said goodbye."

"I will." Lacus nodded.

She followed Mrs. Longbottom to the door and once she had waved goodbye, she immediately ran over to the stairs. Waiting at the foot of the stairs, Lacus tapped her fingers against the wooden banister. Leaning forward she glanced at the cuckoo clock hanging on the wall, the only device in the house that actually showed the accurate time. Luna had never been a fan of living life after fixed schedules and time. It was only at Lacus' insistence that the cuckoo clock was still hanging there. Right now it came in handy, because the clock showed that it was half past one. Sighing, Lacus stepped up on the first step of the stairs.

"Mum, we're going to be late!" Lacus called, looking upstairs. "Aren't you done yet?"

"Being late is only a matter of being unexpected!" was the only answer that came from above.

"No one is going to be there to not expect us if we don't get there before all the shops close!" Lacus retorted.

Light footsteps tread across the floor upstairs and shortly afterwards Luna skipped down the stairs. There was no flour on her face, she had changed into clean clothes and her long hair tied up in a messy braid.

"There, I'm done," she announced.

Taking her mother's hand, Lacus dragged her with her as she entered the living room. They walked across the small landscape of unpacked trunks and piles of books until they reached the fireplace at the other side of the living room.

"Oh, and Mrs. Longbottom invited us for dinner at seven tomorrow," Lacus told as she reached for the jar of floo powder.

She passed the jar to her mother, who despite sporting her usual calm face expression was not looking too happy about what Lacus had just told her.

"And you said yes?" Luna asked.

Lacus opened her mouth to say that she had, but when she thought about it she remembered that she hadn't. It was Mrs. Longbottom who had decided that they should come for dinner, she had not exactly asked.

"At least Neville will be there," Lacus said.

Much like Lacus, Luna's expression brightened upon hearing Neville's name. Lacus looked at Luna and they exchanged a knowing smile. With Neville there the dinner would not be a complete disaster.

* * *

Diagon Alley was experiencing its busiest day ever. At least that what it seemed like to Lacus, who could barely get anywhere without accidentally elbowing people. Luna seemed to have it easier for some reason; she strolled along quietly without paying much attention to the busy crowd around her.

"Okay, I need to get to Flourish and Blott's," Lacus spoke as she looked at the list of supplies that had come with the Hogwarts letter. "Then I have to pick up some ingredients for potions... they're making us get so much this year! Oh, and I need a new scale too and..."

Lacus turned to the right to look at Luna, but she found herself looking at a ginger haired witch who was passing by. Luna was no longer walking with her. Feeling her heart race faster, Lacus stopped and looked into every direction to see where her mother was. Standing on her toes, she tried to look over the crowd. Where was she?

Then, she suddenly caught sight of Luna.

"Mum!"

Elbowing her way through the crowd, Lacus made her way to the window outside Eyelids Owl Emporium, where Luna was standing in front of the window and engaged in a staring contest with a white owl.

"Mum!"

Luna put her index finger to her lip, still not taking her eyes off the owl.

"Hush, Lacus... don't startle her," she whispered. "She's beautiful isn't she?"

Lacus threw a quick glance at the owl. Luna was right in that it was beautiful; the white feathers of the owl were as pure as snow. But the owl could have been rainbow coloured for all she cared, the most important thing was to get all the supplies in time.

"Here, take this," she said, giving her mother the list of books. "Go to Flourish and Blott's and pick these up and I'll go get the potion ingredients."

Luna accepted the list from Lacus and smiled.

"You know that the plimpies will be drawn to you and bite you on the forehead if you frown too much?" she said, poking her finger against Lacus' forehead.

Not feeling like she had the time to joke around, Lacus waved her hand away.

"Mum, be serious," she urged. "Meet me here back in twenty minutes tops, okay?"

Luna poked at Lacus' forehead again.

"Be wary of the plimpies, don't go near any rivers!" she warned cheerfully and then easily slipped into the crowd. She was gone within moments.

Sighing, Lacus turned around and headed the other way. Slug & Jigger's Apothecary was just a few buildings away but it felt like it took forever before Lacus managed to get there with all the people around. No matter how she walked her foot got stepped on constantly and people bumped against her accidentally. When she finally entered the apothecary, she was relieved to find that while it was crowded inside, at least people were mostly standing still than walking.

Taking a deep breath, something she instantly regretted because of the strong smells, Lacus made her way through the store and walked up to the counter. Several clerks were working today, climbing up and down the ladders to reach jars standing on the highest shelves. Lacus was lucky in that one of the clerks had just received a payment from the customer when she got there and he instantly turned to her.

"May I help you?"

Lacus handed him the list of potion ingredients.

"I'd like everything on this list, please. Thank you."

After reading through the list quickly, the clerk walked off to get her things. Lacus stood by the counter and waited. She turned around and looked over the store. The clerks were all running around behind the counter trying to get the orders done as soon as possible. Aside from her there were at least two dozen other customers in the store waiting for their order. All of them looked impatient, as if they had somewhere else to be. Lacus could not help but to feel the same way, she hoped that her order would be done as soon as possible.

She turned around to see where the clerk with her order had gone to. As she turned around she felt something hard bump against her shoulder and the next moment something heavy fell down and landed right on her foot. Instinctively pulling her foot up, Lacus jumped back and let out a gasp of pain. She instinctively grabbed the counter to support herself.

"I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

The pain in her foot was not that serious. It had started to fade almost right away. But pain was the last thing on Lacus' mind as she looked up. Standing before her, was Nathan Montague.

Nathan Montague was difficult to describe. Most people would use the words handsome, charming, gorgeous, dreamy or something else that attributed to his physical appearance. But as Lacus was standing there, staring right into his eyes, her mind went blank. Nathan Montague was in Ravenclaw, in the same year as her, but despite having spent four years at Hogwarts Lacus had never talked to him. With his chiselled features and bright smile he was the most popular guy in her year.

"Um.. I..." Lacus stuttered. "I'm fine."

Nathan smiled and Lacus felt stupid for not being able to talk coherently. He bent down and picked up the thing he had dropped on Lacus' foot, it was a thick potions book.

"Sorry, it just slipped out of my hand," Nathan apologized as he stood up straight and faced Lacus again.

She had to say something; she couldn't just stand there and be quiet while Nathan Montague was taking to her. But her heart was beating so fast.

"Maybe it tried to make a dash for freedom," Lacus blurted out suddenly.

Nathan frowned, looking puzzled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

Lacus bit her lip and felt her face become ten shades redder. She could not believe that she had just said that to Nathan Montague, even to her ears it had sounded weird. Her eyes looked down so that she wouldn't have to face Nathan and she studied a mysterious spot on the floor.

"Hey, you're in Hufflepuff, aren't you?" Nathan said after a while. "Elaine Moran's friend?"

Upon hearing her friend's name being mentioned, Lacus dared to look up again.

"Yeah... you know Elaine?"

Nathan nodded.

"Well, sort of," he answered. "She was with my friends when we went to the Bashing Banshees concert a few weeks ago... I'm sorry if I don't remember you from that, a lot of people were going..."

Nathan's face reddened slightly like he was embarrassed but despite that Lacus only felt worse.

"Um..." she began, cutting him off. "I wasn't there actually."

"Oh."

The hint of a blush disappeared from Nathan's face and instead he looked relieved now that he knew that he wasn't talking to someone he had met before and forgotten about. A strange knot formed in Lacus' stomach. Just because she had corrected him didn't mean that it made her feel better.

"Well, you should have been there then," Nathan smiled. "It was crazy... Have you been to a Bashing Banshees' concert before?"

Lacus shook her head. She got the distinct feeling that it was something that she should have done, that every one person in her age went to Bashing Banshees' concert. But she couldn't have gone even if she had known about it; she had been in abroad with her mother. It was like that, it was how they spent every summer and every holiday.

"Um... you should go sometime," Nathan encouraged, his tone starting to sound unsure. "It's worth it."

Lacus nodded slowly. She was sure that it was from the way Nathan was starting to talk about it before he realized that she wouldn't know what he was talking about. Lacus knew that the Bashing Banshees were some kind of band, but she had never heard their songs. It wasn't that she didn't listen to their music. It was just that Luna seemed to listen to music coming from every corner of the globe except for Britain.

"So..." she began, trying to figure out something to say. "Are you here to get potion ingredients too?"

The moment she had asked the question she felt like slapping herself on the head. What kind of question was that to ask when they were standing in an apothecary? It was stupid, she felt stupid.

"Yeah," Nathan answered. "My mom went and got the other stuff a few days ago but she forgot some things so I'm getting them today."

Just when Lacus opened her mouth and was about to continue the conversation, the door to the apothecary opened. Coming in from the busy street was Luna, carrying a stack of books in her arms. Despite that she had no problems navigating through the store and breezed past all the waiting customers all the way to where Lacus was standing with Nathan.

"Hey!" Luna greeted, not noticing Nathan. "I got you the books... did you know there's a new book about heliopaths out? It looks like the public is starting to open their eyes to the truth; perhaps in time people will start uncovering all the truths that the ministry have been burying for years. I hope it will mean that it will help the snorkack findings be taken more seriously..."

Luna stopped suddenly as she noticed that Nathan was looking rather strangely at her. Rather than feeling uncomfortable, Luna just looked right back at him.

"Hello, do you want something?" she asked calmly.

Nathan looked taken back by her question.

"No, um... I... I just..." he stammered and then looked at Lacus for some sort of explanation.

Lacus looked down, avoiding Nathan's eyes. Luna's sudden appearance and all the ranting about conspiracies really couldn't have come at a worse time. Even though she wasn't facing Nathan she could feel how he was taken back by Luna's sudden appearance and found all her talk about heliopaths and snorkacks strange and abnormal. Lacus could have given anything to sink through the ground.

That did not happen, but the next moment the clerk appeared and placed a package on the counter.

"There you go, it's all in there," he said, putting the list that Lacus had given him before on top of the package.

Digging some coins out of her pockets, Lacus paid him. She grabbed the package quickly and barely mumbled a "Bye" to Nathan before she rushed out of the apothecary.

* * *

Lacus didn't feel better even when she and Luna came home from Diagon Alley. She instantly put down all the things she had bought on the living room floor, then proceeded to head towards her room as soon as possible. Luna followed her, much to her chagrin. It was in the kitchen that Lacus felt a hand on her shoulder. She stopped and turned to face her mother.

"What?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

There was a slight frown on Luna's face, one that Lacus rarely saw on her mother's face. But at the moment she did not care, all she could think of was what it had felt like standing in that store with Nathan Montague.

"What's wrong with you?" Luna asked frankly. "You're in a bad mood."

"Well, maybe I am," Lacus challenged. "Did you ever think about who was there with me?"

Luna blinked obliviously, something that only made Lacus feel more irritated about the whole situation. She sighed and looked away from her mother.

"Like it's not enough that I have no idea what he was talking about because I haven't been to concerts and stuff like he and every other person has..." she muttered, staring down the floor. There was still flour here and there.

Luna stepped forward and reached out to place a hand on Lacus' arm.

"What's bothering you?" she asked. "You can tell me about it, you know that..."

"No, mum!" Lacus exclaimed, swatting Luna's hand away. "There are just some... some things! Did you even consider all the things that I missed because you've travelled so much and always taken me with you?"

"If you wanted to do something else then I would have known," Luna stated calmly.

"How?" Lacus questioned.

"You would have told me."

Lacus rolled her eyes.

"I don't tell you everything!" she said instinctively.

Luna said nothing; she merely crossed her arms and looked at Lacus intensely. What was going on in her head Lacus did not know, because she turned her eyes away from her mother. All the years she had been travelling with her mother she had missed so many opportunities to spend time with other people her age. Perhaps then she would have known what to say when Nathan Montague was talking to her, perhaps she would not have felt so stupid.

After a while, Luna spoke again.

"Why don't you tell me what's really bothering you?"

Lacus sighed deeply. She didn't even want to think about what Nathan must be thinking about her, what he had thought when Luna had just interrupted their conversation with all the talk of heliopaths and snorkacks. He must think that she was the weirdest girl on the planet. Lacus turned around and continued into her room. As she entered her room, her hand resting on the door handle, she sighed one more time in annoyance.

"Sometimes I wish that you could just be more normal!"

She shut the door after herself, closing Luna out.

* * *

Standing on the doorstep of Augusta Longbottom's house the next night felt very weird.

It even felt weird to Luna, who for as long she could remember had rarely felt uncomfortable no matter what situation she was in. But as she was standing on the doorstep, with Lacus at her side and staring at the giant, white wooden door before her, she knew that she felt uncomfortable.

It was the whole situation, she knew that. It was that her daughter was standing with her arms crossed and still feeling sour from the day before. It was that she was so used to being best friends with Lacus that she was rarely reminded of the fact that the latter was also a fifteen year old girl who saw and experienced things different from Luna. It had been her and Lacus for so long, just the two of them. Sometimes Luna forgot to think that Lacus' needs differentiated from hers.

But it was also this house. This old house. Whenever Mrs. Longbottom knew that they were home she invited them over for dinner. Luna went every time she was invited, but every time she was standing in front of the house she would think about the first time she had entered that house and the time after that. It had been nineteen years since then.

Nineteen years ago... had it really been so long?

"So are we going to go in or not?" Lacus muttered sourly, still standing with her arms crossed.

Luna turned to Lacus.

"Are you going to stop attracting plimpies to you or not?" she asked. "You know they are drawn to everything that's sour."

Lacus rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Fine."

She uncrossed her arms. Pleased with that simple action, Luna turned back to the door and rung the doorbell. They hardly waited a minute before the door opened, showing a familiar face standing on the other side.

"Luna! Lacus! You're here!"

"Hello Neville," Luna greeted and smiled warmly.

She stepped forward and gave him a hug. Neville Longbottom was her oldest friend, ever since that year when they had both joined DA. It was Neville and his grandmother who had helped her most that time after battle at Hogwarts, the ones who had taken her in when she had no where to go. Though she did not seem Neville often these days, he was still one of her dearest friends.

The sour expression on Lacus' face had disappeared the moment she had seen Neville. When Luna released him from the hug, Lacus stepped up and gave him one.

"Hello uncle Neville," Lacus smiled.

Neville ruffled Lacus' hair playfully. Though he was Professor Longbottom at Hogwarts, before that he had been uncle Neville to Lacus since she had been born. Luna watched the two of them. Neville meant as much to Lacus as he did to Luna.

"Gran wasn't joking, you have grown taller," Neville commented as he looked at Lacus. "But to me you'll always be that little girl who cried because she thought that I had actually got her nose for real."

Lacus tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"I'm not even through the door and you're already bringing up embarrassing memories," she mumbled, smiling.

Neville smiled back in return and stepped aside so that they could come in. They took off their coats and Neville hung them up on the coat rack.

"Hannah and the girls couldn't make it tonight," he told as he led them into the sitting room. "It's their cousin's birthday so they had to attend the party. I, on the other hand, get a free pass because Gran told me to come over for dinner."

"And instead you are here with us," Luna said.

"Well, I haven't seen you two for a while... well, I see you all year around," Neville answered, glancing at Lacus as they entered the living room. "But I haven't seen you, Luna, in a while. So where did you two go this summer?"

"Sardinia," Luna replied. "There's been a new species of doxies living among the smaller islands there. They were very interesting to study."

"So Sardinia... I bet you had a lot of gelato while you were there," Neville smiled at Lacus.

Lacus said nothing, but she forced a smile in return. The three of them entered the sitting room. It was the largest room in the house, with creaking wooden floorboards and rustic furniture. Two beige couches stood in the middle of the room with a large wooden chest in the middle acting as a coffee table. Sitting on one of the couches was Mrs. Longbottom whose robes were a slightly brighter shade of green than usual tonight.

"Good evening, Mrs. Longbottom," Lacus greeted.

"It's lovely having you two here," Mrs. Longbottom said, motioning for them to sit down. "I was just telling Neville that how nice it would be if you two stayed here more often."

"As you always do, Gran," Neville finished and sat down next to her while Luna and Lacus sat down on the other couch. He winked at Luna, who smiled knowingly in return.

"Well, I don't see the wrong in that," Mrs. Longbottom protested. "After all, what good is going back and forth all across the world when you have a perfectly good home here? Don't you agree, Lacus?"

Luna turned her eyes to Lacus. Surprised by the direct question, Lacus seemed to be at a loss of what to say. Her eyes darted back and forth between Mrs. Longbottom and Neville. Luna waited for her answer.

"Oh, I don't know..." Lacus began uncertainly. "I guess."

Mrs. Longbottom smiled triumphantly at Luna.

"There you go, even your child has said it now."

Neville and Luna looked at each other, the smile they had exchanged before fading. The topic that came up every year had started already and they hadn't even eaten yet. Luna watched as Neville leaned back in the couch, not wanting to take an active stand in the whole thing. She then turned back to Mrs. Longbottom.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

The dining room felt bigger than what Luna remembered. Perhaps it was that the dining table was made to accommodate at least ten people and with the four of them sitting on each side it felt slightly awkward. But perhaps it was the silence, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of forks scraping against porcelain. Luna looked at Lacus, who was sitting on the other side of the table, eating quietly. She had no said much the entire night, something that Luna herself was guilty of too.

But she could not help it. It was being back in this house, remembering everything that time after the battle that she had spent here. As grateful as she was to Mrs. Longbottom and Neville for taking her in, it was not enough to take away all the memories of that time.

"The roast beef is lovely, Gran," Neville complimented after a while, just to break the silence.

"Thank you," Mrs. Longbottom replied and looked up over the table, at Neville, then Luna and finally Lacus. "I must say again how lovely it is to have all of you here. You are all away so often, I feel I don't see you enough. I've always said this, there is nothing more important in life than family."

"And pudding."

Neville nearly choked on his food.

Luna looked up to see three pairs of eyes staring intensely at her in silence. Mrs. Longbottom's gaze felt particularly sharp. Luna smiled awkwardly; her fork stopping as it was halfway to her mouth.

"Never mind."

Neville reached for his glass of water while Lacus slowly resumed her eating. But Mrs. Longbottom did not take her eyes off her. Instead she put down her fork and leaned forward just slightly.

"So how long are you really staying for, Luna?" she asked.

"I don't know," Luna answered, poking the vegetables on her plate. "I'll be here fore a while though."

"So does that mean until at least the end of next week or might it even be until next Sunday?"

Neville put down his fork.

"Gran!"

Mrs. Longbottom looked at Neville, who was sitting across her on the other side of the table.

"It's a legitimate question," she defended. "Luna has barely stayed more than a week in a row before going off to Uzbekistan or Merlin knows where!"

Feeling like her appetite was gone; Luna put down her fork and looked straight at Mrs. Longbottom.

"Mrs. Longbottom," she said. "Can I speak to you privately?"

The words she had uttered made it sound like a request, but the tone in her voice implied that it was not. Mrs. Longbottom looked at her in surprise, then set down her knife and fork on the table. She got up and headed into the kitchen, Luna followed her shortly afterwards.

"Is there something you would like to say to me?" Luna confronted directly, crossing her arms. "It appears to me that there's something that you're not that happy with."

She fearlessly looked into Mrs. Longbottom's eyes, waiting for an answer. Mrs. Longbottom also crossed her arms, refusing to back down. It was not in her nature to deny things or be anything but completely frank and honest with what she was thinking.

"I don't see how this is different from any other time you've come back," Mrs. Longbottom said. "All this talk about staying here a little longer? You'll be gone in a week or two again!"

"And what's wrong with that?" Luna questioned. "What's so wrong about going off somewhere else? I like travelling!"

Mrs. Longbottom snorted.

"If that boy hadn't broken your heart then you would have never gone away in the first place," she muttered.

Luna felt her heart skip a beat at the mention of the boy. She watched Mrs. Longbottom silently. The latter shook her head, looking not angry but regretful. Mrs. Longbottom straightened her robes slightly and sighed.

"You could have stayed here, you could have..." she began.

"Married Neville?" Luna finished.

Mrs. Longbottom said nothing but Luna could tell that it was exactly what she was thinking. Now it was Luna's turn to sigh. She walked over to the other side of the kitchen. It was the same thing; Mrs. Longbottom's opinions had not changed one bit in nineteen years.

"Neville and I are friends," Luna clarified. "We always will be, but we were never in love."

At the moment the door to the dining room opened and Neville came in. He looked at both his grandmother and Luna. When neither of them said anything, he walked in and closed the door carefully after himself.

"What's going on with you two?" he asked, looking at both of them for some kind of explanation.

Luna just looked away. Neville turned to his grandmother, but she did not concern herself with explaining things to him either.

"And then you got married to Rolf and we thought that you would be alright," Mrs. Longbottom went on. "But then you insisted that you would keep travelling around and your husband left you because you didn't want to settle down... if you had just done that then Lacus could have grown up in a safe and stable environment with two parents."

Neville stared at her in shock.

"Gran!"

Luna turned around, facing Mrs. Longbottom again.

"That is not fair," she pointed out. "It's my life and those were my choices. And Lacus turned out just fine, didn't she?"

Upon hearing the last few words, the expression on Mrs. Longbottom's face softened slightly. Silence fell over the kitchen, with Luna staring down at Mrs. Longbottom and Neville standing between the two, confused as to what was going on. Luna said nothing; she had nothing more to say. Mrs. Longbottom had her opinions and as strong as they were, the choices Luna had made in the past had been her own. She knew that Mrs. Longbottom cared for her and Lacus but in the long run Luna had no one but herself to answer to. No one but Lacus and herself.

After what felt like an eternity, Mrs. Longbottom sighed again.

"Yes, she did," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean that she won't want a real place to call home in the future."

Luna thought back to the day before when she and Lacus had returned to the cottage from Diagon Alley. The words that Lacus had said were still fresh in her mind. She was a mother after all and what kind of mother would forget so easily?

"Don't worry..." Luna murmured, looking downwards. "The job at The Quibbler means that I will be here much longer than usual."

Mrs. Longbottom looked at her cautiously.

"Are you sure?"

"I don't have a choice," Luna answered and forced a smile. "The Quibbler isn't doing that well these days."

Neville frowned.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Is it in trouble?"

Luna shook her head.

"No, it's not..." she began. "Not if I can get it back on its feet and make sure it does as good as it used to do."

Mrs. Longbottom opened her mouth to say something, but whatever it was she held it back. Rather than saying anything, she walked over to Luna. At first she did nothing but stand there but after a while she reached out and took Luna's hand. Her hand was callous but warm and comforting.

Luna looked up to see Mrs. Longbottom smiling gently at her. The memory of nineteen years ago, the day she had first entered this house came back to her. She had been younger then, more idealistic yet felt so lost and lonely. She had not known where to go, who to turn to. But Mrs. Longbottom had taken her hand and held it the same way she did not.

Luna managed a smile in return and squeezed her hand back.

* * *

A few hours later, as the door to the Longbottom house closed behind them, Luna stopped and took a deep breath. Lacus looked at her, feeling nothing but sympathy for her mother.

"That was one weird night wasn't it?" she said.

Luna turned her eyes towards her.

"How much did you hear?"

"Pretty much everything."

Luna smiled and put her arm around Lacus' shoulder. Lacus didn't return her smile; instead she looked at her mother with concern.

"Why didn't you tell me that The Quibbler is in trouble?" Lacus asked.

"I don't tell you everything," Luna smiled.

Upon hearing her own words being said back to her, Lacus couldn't resist letting out a chuckle. Leaning her head slightly against her mother's shoulder, the two of them slowly began to walk away from the house.

"We got some communication issues here," Lacus pointed out lightly. "We need to work on that."

"Let's start by that boy, the one you were standing with in the apothecary yesterday," Luna suggested cheerfully, already looking less weary than before.

Lacus' face went slightly red.

"You know what I like about us, mum?" she said. "The fact that we spent so much time around each other that we don't really need to talk about everything like everyone else."

"So who was the boy?"

"No one!"

"You wouldn't be blushing if it was no one!"

"Hey, mum?"

The two of them stopped and Lacus turned to look at her mother.

"What Mrs. Longbottom said before when you were in the kitchen..." she began. "That boy who broke your heart... that wasn't dad, right? That was someone else?"

Summer was fading; the leaves on the trees had already turned gold and red. The sun had almost set, leaving only a little light for those who were still outdoors. Standing there on the outskirts of Mrs. Longbottom's garden, Luna grinned widely at her daughter.

"You know what I like about us? The fact that we spent so much time around each other that we don't need to talk about everything."

She ruffled Lacus' neatly brushed hair and ran off. Reaching up to her head and trying to straighten her hair out, Lacus set off after her, laughing.

"Mum, wait!"

* * *

It was said that autumn arrived suddenly that year. For many it was a rude awakening, a sign that summer was truly over and for the children it was time to go back to Hogwarts. But for the Lovegoods it came more suddenly than ever, as it was only the day after the dinner at Mrs. Longbottom's house that it was September 1st.

Lacus came through the barrier, pushing a trolley with her trunk ahead of her. She was met by the sight of the Hogwarts Express, thick steam and fumes coming out of the engine. The platform was crowded with people, children saying goodbye to their parents and their siblings. She caught sight of a family walking by with owl cages rattling on top of the trolley, the youngest girl whining about wanting to go to Hogwarts. It was like this every year.

Luna appeared behind her, having just crossed the barrier. The two of them kept walking down the platform, until they found a section of the train that was not too crowded and full. After loading her trunk into the train, Lacus returned to the platform where Luna was waiting for her.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Lacus said.

Smiling, Luna reached into the pockets of her coat and took out a small brown paper bag.

"Here, I made this for you."

Receiving the bag from Luna, Lacus looked at it curiously and opened it. Inside the bag were two neatly steamed white buns. Bringing the bag up, Lacus inhaled the smell of cardamom and ginger from the buns.

"So I guess those baozi turned out edible after all?" she smiled. "They smell pretty good."

"Oh, I don't know about edible," Luna answered. "I haven't actually tried one yet."

Looking at the bag with a lot more caution than before, Lacus closed it and put it inside the pocket of her robe. All around them children were hugging their parents goodbye and getting on the train. It was time to leave. Biting her lip, Lacus played with the hem of her sleeve nervously.

"Mum..." she began quietly. "I'm sorry about what I said... about wishing that you were more normal. I didn't mean it like that."

Luna smiled and drew her into a hug. She smelled of cardamom and ginger, like she had been baking baozi all morning.

"I know." Luna released Lacus from the hug but she kept her hands on her shoulder. "And things will be a little different this year... I'll be staying here for a while after all. Who knows, I might even become more normal."

Lacus chuckled.

"I don't think we would want that... none of the other mums makes baozi for their daughters."

The doors at the other end of the train were beginning to close. Lacus looked around and saw that and most of the children had already gotten on the train.

"Gotta go!" She hugged Luna tightly. "I'll write often!"

Luna squeezed her tightly in her arms.

"Three times a week?"

"Four!"

Smiling, Luna let go of Lacus and watched as her daughter jumped onto the train just before the door closed behind her. Staying on the platform, Luna tried to look through the windows of the train. The windows were open, children were practically hanging out of them and waving goodbye to their families one last time.

Luna felt a sting in her heart watching them. It was like this every year, saying goodbye to Lacus and knowing that it would be a long time until they saw each other again. But this year would be different. Working at The Quibbler would keep her around, this time she wouldn't be in another country. It was a small thing; she would not see Lacus more often because of this. But for some reason it felt like t least they would be a little closer.

She saw a flash of blonde hair somewhere and suddenly Lacus managed to elbow her way to a spot near the window. There were a couple of first years standing in front of her and she couldn't get all the way to the window and shout her last goodbyes. But Luna watched as Lacus pulled out the bag with the baozi from her jacket and pointed at it. She smiled as Lacus clearly took a big bite of the bun. The smile stayed on her lips even when Lacus spit out the bite two seconds later in a very unladylike way and shook her head while pointing at the bag.

Apparently it was not that edible.

The train slowly began to roll away. Luna waved until Lacus was out of sight and the train was halfway out of the platform. She stood there watching as the train rolled further and further away from her, carrying her daughter away. The train disappeared out of sight as it rounded a corner. All the bustle and busy excitement that had characterised atmosphere the platform just a few minutes ago died down as all the were left were the families of the children on the train.

Taking a deep breath, Luna put her hands in her pockets.

Things would be different this year. How different, she didn't not know.

But she would soon find out.

Just as she turned around to leave, her shoulder bumped into something hard and sent her stumbling back a step. Regaining her balance quickly, Luna looked up only to stare right into a pair of familiar green eyes.

"Pardon me, I didn't see you..."

Her heart stopped.

His eyes were just the same, that is how she recognized him. But when she looked beyond the eyes she saw the glasses, the dark hair, and the scar on his forehead just barely hidden behind his it. He was older, his face had more wrinkles, but it was him. She knew that right away.

He paused right in the middle of the apology, suddenly staring at her the same way she was staring at him.

"Luna?"

When the shock had faded just slightly, Luna's lips automatically curved into what was almost smile.

"Harry," she stated breathlessly.

Standing before her, Harry Potter looked equally surprised like he couldn't believe his eyes. He looked at her closely, from bottom to top. It was like it was only then that he realized that she was real.

"Wow, it's really you," he said. "I haven't seen you in years."

Luna shrugged lightly.

"I've been away," she answered truthfully.

She was still looking into his eyes. They had not changed a bit. In spite of all the years that had passed, they had still recognized each other. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly an arm snaked around his and they were no longer alone.

Ginny Potter came into view, Luna recognized her old friend straight away. The same thing could not have gone for Ginny, who regarded Luna with a cautious look in the beginning.

"Ginny, it's Luna!" Harry pointed out enthusiastically.

Looking at Harry first, Ginny then turned to Luna. The look on her face changed instantly and she was looking at Luna in a considerably warmer way than she was before.

"Luna... how nice to see you again," she smiled. "What are you doing here?"

She stayed by Harry's side, not releasing his arm for one moment. Luna glanced down quickly and saw the identical wedding rings on their fingers.

"I just escorted my daughter to the train," Luna told.

Both Harry's and Ginny's eyes widened in surprise.

"You have a daughter?" Harry's mouth was half open in shock.

Luna nodded.

"Lacus, she's in her fifth year."

"Our James is in his third year," Ginny told. "And Albus is just starting his first year."

Luna smiled.

"So you have two children?"

"Three," Ginny corrected. "We have a daughter too."

Luna's eyes drifted back to Harry. Looking at him she remembered the boy she had known a long time ago. In all these years she had never once encountered Harry or Ginny. It had been best that way to not seek them out, considering what things had been like the last time the three of them had been in the same room. Nineteen years later, who would have known that this was how they would meet again?

"I have to get going," Luna lied, smiling. "It's great seeing you two again."

"Yes, same here," Ginny replied and smiled back.

Luna didn't feel that Ginny's smile was entirely real. Then again, neither was hers. She looked at Harry one last time and their eyes automatically met. The secrets memories of the past coming to mind, Luna could not help but to smile for real, before walking past the couple and away from them.

* * *

Harry turned around, watching Luna go.

Nineteen years. Had it really been that long? Deep inside, he knew that it was. As he was watching her walk away, it felt like it had been another lifetime when he had watched her walk away from him at the bulletin board in his fifth year after Sirius' death. So much had happened since then, so much had changed.

"Harry? Harry?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Harry turned back to his wife. Ginny was looking rather impatiently at him.

"Let's go, Lily's waiting for us with Ron and Hermione," she reminded, giving his arm a little tug.

Harry turned his eyes back to the direction that Luna had walked towards but he could no longer see her. She was gone.

After another tug from Ginny, he gave up and walked away with her in silence.


	2. The same, old, new adventure

**The Lovegood Way**

**Chapter 2: The same, old, new adventure**

Thanks for all the reviews! I am sorry that this has taken some time to write but as you've probably have noticed I believe in taking my time in writing a story. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

* * *

The house was empty.

No matter how she looked at it, the house was empty. It was quiet in the way that not even loud music could make it lively. It was still and except for enchanting the tea cups to dance there was not really much she could do about it.

Sitting on the foot of the stairs, Luna looked over the hallway. She held a cup of tea in her hands. The cup was still half full but the tea had gone cold. Her eyes drifted over the hallway, over the pictures hanging on the wall. They had not spent much time in this cottage, not enough to call it home. But what the cottage was the place that held the physical memories of her life.

Luna sipped the cold tea.

Pictures hung on the wall, though they did not hang in any particular order there were pictures of every different period of her life. There were the pictures of her parents that she had managed to salvage from the wreck that had been the home she grew up in. There was a picture of the first time she had ridden an elephant in Thailand, of her strapping baby Lacus on her back as she and Rolf were about to head into the jungle. As Lacus became older on the pictures, Rolf was no longer in them.

The pictures that dominated the wall were pictures of just Luna and Lacus. The setting was different in each picture, they were wearing different things in every picture and Lacus grew from a toddler to the teenager she was now. But what every picture had in common was the way Luna and Lacus both laughed at the camera. Luna smiled just by looking at the pictures. All these years it had just been the two of them, but they hadn't needed anyone else. They had been happy just having each other.

Getting up, Luna walked into the kitchen. Though her feet were bare, her footsteps sounded so loud against the wooden floor, louder than usual because of the silence. She wasn't used to being in the cottage by herself like this. Whenever Lacus went back to Hogwarts Luna would go back to travelling, chasing yet another new adventure on her own.

Setting the tea cup down into the sink, Luna tried to remind herself that this was also a new adventure. It was just not the one that she was used to tackling.

Walking over to the kitchen window, Luna opened it and leaned out just slightly. The sun was rising, casting the first light of the day over the world. A gentle breeze was blowing and as Luna closed her eyes she took a deep breath. The air felt fresh and new in her lungs and when she opened her eyes she managed a smile.

It was just another new adventure.

She could do this.

* * *

Diagon Alley was still quiet and calm by the time she arrived. Most shops had not opened yet, the owners still preparing for what would be yet another busy day. But the cafés had opened and as Luna skipped across the cobbled stoned streets she felt the enthusiasm build up inside her. Today was her first real day working at The Quibbler. Despite all the things she would have to deal with when she got there, she remembered the way her father had passionately worked for the magazine. She would share the same passion, be driven by the same passion for uncovering truths and for the freedom to believe.

The joy bubbling slowly inside her, Luna pushed the door open to the small café which was just next to Flourish and Blott's. A bell rung as she opened the door and entered the café. The café was small with little more than a counter at the end of the room with a handful of small tables placed alongside the walls. Walking up to the counter, Luna caught the eyes of a young, brunette witch who was standing behind it.

"May I help you?" she asked.

Looking over the counter, Luna saw the sandwiches placed on a tray on the counter. She looked over the sandwiches, trying to decide which on to have.

"I'll have a turkey sandwich," she decided after a while and then glanced briefly at the blackboard hanging on the wall above the counter. "And a cup of green mint tea, please."

"Coming right up."

Digging into her pocket, Luna handed over enough coins to pay for the sandwich and the tea. At the same time the bell rung again and the quick gust of fresh air revealed that the door had been opened again. The cashier received Luna's payment and then looked up to see who had entered the café.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," she greeted upon seeing who it was. "The usual, right?"

A figure walked up to the counter, standing next to Luna. Luna looked to her left and found herself looking right into Harry's eyes. Her eyes widened and for a moment she stood frozen there just staring at him. She had not expected to see him again, least of all while getting breakfast on her first day of work. Harry seemed to have a similar reaction, the look on his face told Luna that he had not expected to see her either. He did not speak but just stood there and stared back at her. It took the cashier pretending to clear her throat for the two of them to snap out of their staring and turn their attention to her.

"Oh sorry... yes, please, I'd like the usual," Harry answered. "Thank you, Eliza."

Nodding, the cashier disappeared through the door behind the counter to prepare whatever the usual was. Luna and Harry were left alone.

Seconds passed without either of them saying anything. Luna looked at the menu again, wondering if she should have asked for an egg sandwich instead. From where she was she noticed how Harry's gaze was looking everywhere and at everything. Everything except for her.

"Do you think this is awkward?" Luna asked casually, turning to Harry.

His eyes stopped darting around, finally turning to look at her instead.

"W-what is?"

There was just a little bit of stuttering in his voice.

"Meeting me like this," Luna replied. "Unexpectedly, I suppose."

Harry nodded slightly.

"Yeah… a little."

Luna turned back to look at the doorway that the cashier had disappeared through. The latter was still in the back room preparing their orders.

"I'm on my way to the Quibbler," Luna told. "It's my first day working there. And you?"

Harry stuck his hands into his pockets.

"The ministry," he answered. "I work there now."

Luna smiled.

"Yes, head of the Auror department, I heard… That's why I don't believe the theories about what happened in Birmingham. I think we both know that you could not have been foolish enough to send those Aurors into the mouth of a roaring dragon."

She noticing how Harry's eyes grew with each word she spoke, not so much in amazement as it was in surprise. The words had just slipped out her mouth before she had thought about them; she supposed that sometimes she still had the ability to catch people by surprise that way. When Harry kept staring at her with that clueless look of his, Luna just turned to him and smiled.

"It's alright, you don't have to comment on that," Luna assured. "I haven't started working just yet. Besides, we both know that it was really a heliopath."

Upon hearing her words, Harry chuckled slightly. The sound of his laughter made the atmosphere feel considerably less tense. It even made Luna feel a little lighter on the inside.

The cashier came out, holding a paper bag in each of her hands. She handed the one of her right to Luna and the other to Harry.

"There you go, have a nice day!" she said as she received payments from both of them.

"You too," Luna smiled.

She turned around to head for the door and reached out for the door handle. Harry did the same and with neither of them looking their hands briefly made contact with each other as they both reached for the door handle. Harry instantly drew his hand back as if he had been burnt. When Luna looked at him, he was staring downwards and his cheeks were slightly red.

"Um… sorry…" Harry apologized, scratching the back of his head while avoiding looking at Luna. "Ill just…"

Before he had the chance to reach for the door handle again Luna had pulled it and opened the door. Harry looked at Luna awkwardly, then at the door. None of them moved and Harry kept looking at Luna as if he was waiting for her to do something. After a while, until the cashier peered from the counter to see what they were doing, Harry finally seemed to understand.

"Um… thanks," he murmured and walked out of the café as Luna was holding the door open.

Though he was walking before her, Luna could tell that he seemed slightly uncomfortable or unused to have the door held open for him by a woman. She shook her head, smiling as she walked through the doorway and left the café. To think that such things still mattered to some people.

Standing out on the street, Harry looked to his left. Luna walked up and stood next to him.

"So…"

Luna smiled.

"I'm going that way," Harry told, gesturing towards his right. "And you?"

"I'm going left."

Nodding slowly, Harry dared to look up at Luna again. Their eyes met for the briefest moment.

"Well, it's been nice seeing you again," he said. "Good luck on your first day."

"Yeah… you too."

Another awkward moment, another awkward smile.

Then Luna and Harry walked past each other, both of them heading to start a day that would change the rest of their lives.

* * *

Following the death of her father, the ownership of the Quibbler had fallen to Luna. It was only after the end of the war that she had been told that her father had died in Azkaban. She was only seventeen when it happened. Wizards came of age when they were seventeen but that did not always mean that one automatically was a grown up at seventeen.

So it was Marius Nichols, one of the freelance writers that had contributed to the Quibbler often, who had stepped in to run the Quibbler. Luna had been confident in his abilities to run the Quibbler and in the nineteen years that had passed Marius had proved her right. With Marius Nichols as the editor the Quibbler had done well. It had gone from being a small magazine printed in the living room of the editor's house to having an office in Diagon Alley and employ people full time rather than relying on freelance work and contributors. No one could deny that Marius Nichols had been an asset to the Quibbler. But after nineteen years, anyone could run out of steam and make mistakes.

Perhaps that was why Luna felt no disappointment towards Marius Nichols and had accepted his request for retirement without saying anything. But something she could not stand by and watch quietly was how the mistakes Marius had made the last few years take down the Quibbler. No, if the Quibbler was in trouble, she would step in and fix it. As a child she had dreamed of writing for the Quibbler. It was time to realize that childhood dream of hers.

The elevator doors opened and Luna looked up. Her eyes gazed across the office landscape before her. The smell of ink reached her nostrils even before she stepped out of the elevator. The walls of the office were round. Bookshelves and bulletin boards covered the walls save for one section at the other end of the office. The only reason why it wasn't covered with a bookshelf was because there was a door there. But aside from the bookshelves the office was scarcely furnished. There were only two desks in the middle of the room and they stood facing each other.

The two desks had name tags on them. One of them read Pansy Parkinson.

The name had barely registered in Luna's head before she heard the elevator door open behind her.

Many years had passed since Luna last saw that face. But despite how aged that face was after nineteen years, the same look of confidence and haughtiness was still there. Luna recognized Pansy Parkinson from the very first moment.

Wearing a fashionable red coat, Pansy stepped out of the elevator. Her high heels clicked against the floor until the moment when her eyes caught sight of Luna and she suddenly stopped. The paper cup she held in one hand stopped halfway to her painted red lips.

"Good morning," Luna greeted happily from where she stood.

Pansy remained where she was, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide and showing no sign of moving. Luna looked over her shoulder quickly but saw nothing of interest.

"Is everything alright?" she asked. "Is there something particularly fascinating behind me?"

Pansy continued to stare at her.

"Don't tell me you are who I think you are," she said, speaking for the first time.

"I'm Luna Lovegood," Luna introduced herself. She walked over to Pansy and offered her hand for her to shake. "I don't know if you remember me but we went to school together. You were a year above me."

Pansy's eyes shifted focus from Luna's face to Luna's hand. She made a face, as if she was looking at something dirty.

"Great, just great…" she muttered. "I love mornings."

She walked right past Luna without shaking her hand. Drawing her hand back, Luna turned around and watched as Pansy walked over to the desk with her name on it. Setting down the paper coffee cup and her expensive leather bag on the table, Pansy pulled her chair out and sat down lazily. Digging into her pocket, she quickly found a pack of cigarettes and used her wand to light one up.

Luna wrinkled her nose as the smell of cigarette smoke reached her nostrils; she had never liked cigarettes much. Pansy, on the other hand, looked significantly more relaxed as she blew out the smoke slowly.

"So what are you doing here?" Pansy drawled, her fingers playing with a quill that had been lying on her desk. "Here with another stupid article? Or are you just here as an owner checking up on the company?"

Ignoring the way Pansy spoke to her; Luna just smiled and walked over to stand before Pansy's desk.

"Actually I'm here as the editor today," she told. "I'll be taking over Mr. Nichols job from today on."

It was a good thing that Pansy was holding the cigarette with her fingers because it would have dropped to the floor along with her jaw.

"You can not be serious."

"I most certainly am."

Letting out the deepest sigh that Luna had ever heard, Pansy leaned back in the chair and raised her legs. Placing her perfectly clean, black, dragon skin boots on the desk, she raised her hand to her forehead dramatically.

"I thought Mr. Nichols was joking when he said that he would retire and you would take over," Pansy sighed. "It certainly sounded like a joke."

Still smiling, Luna crossed her arms.

"Are those made of dragon skin?" she asked, glancing towards the boots Pansy was wearing.

"Yes, so?"

Luna shrugged, sitting on the edge of the desk and drew a deep sigh, similar to the way Pansy had sighed just a few seconds ago.

"Commercial dragon hunting is a shameful thing…" she began. "A terrible way to end the lives of dragons, especially all for the sake of fashion. As editor and owner of the Quibbler I cannot possibly have employees who support it. I'm sorry Ms Parkinson, but you're fired."

Upon hearing Luna's words, Pansy's eyes became so big that Luna actually thought that they were going to pop out. This time the cigarette dropped from her fingers, falling to the floor and igniting a small piece of parchment that had been crumbled into a ball. Reaching into her pocket, Luna drew out her wand and quickly put out the flames with a spell.

"Close one there," Luna chirped, putting her wand back into her pocket.

Turning her head to look at Pansy again, she discovered the Pansy was still staring at her with wide eyes like she had been frozen on the spot. Luna grinned.

"Joke. That was a joke."

Pansy was not laughing. The big-eyed, surprised expression on her face quickly disappeared. Instead her eyes narrowed, the lines in her face tightened and Luna felt that she was being stared at in a completely differently way from before. Clearly, Pansy did not appreciate her joke.

Before any of them had the time to say or do anything, they were interrupted by the sound of the elevator doors opening. Luna looked over her shoulder to see a thin man with ruffled blonde hair stepping out of the elevator. Despite his thin build, the man had round rosy cheeks and carried a messenger bag that gave him a boyish look, although Luna guessed that it had been quite a few years since he had last been called a boy.

"Hello there," she greeted.

The man jumped slightly upon hearing Luna's voice and looked up.

"Oh… h-hello," he replied nervously.

Getting up, Luna walked over to the man and offered her hand for him to shake.

"I'm Luna Lovegood, new editor of the Quibbler," she introduced herself. "And you are?"

The man opened his mouth to answer but at the same time they heard Pansy speaking from behind her desk.

"That's Nigel," she told, picking up her cup of coffee and sipping it. "He's our resident..." Pausing, Pansy turned to look at Nigel. "What is it that you do again?"

Shifting the messenger bag to his other shoulder, Nigel smiled nervously.

"Facts checker," he replied, his voice a little shaky. "I, um... check facts."

"It's nice to meet you, Nigel," Luna smiled.

Nodding slowly, Nigel carefully made his way over to the second desk. He set his bag down slowly and eased into the chair with caution. Luna looked up towards the ceiling. There were no nargles there, which made her wonder why Nigel was being so careful and nervous.

But with Nigel at the desk, all the working spaces in the office were now occupied.

"Do you usually share desks with the others when they come in?" Luna asked, looking at both Pansy and Nigel.

Pansy snorted.

"Share?" she repeated, like it was something vile and disgusting. "I don't share anything with anyone."

Seeing as that wasn't much of a helpful answer, Luna turned to look at Nigel.

"Then where does everyone else work?"

Nigel cleared his throat.

"Um... Mr. Nichols had to sack them," he explained, playing nervously with a quill. "Waste of time and money to keep them 'round he said... much more effective with contributors submitting articles and him writing a few pieces..."

Luna stared blankly at Nigel as he spoke. So things were that bad. It had gotten to the point where there were no more reporters working at the Quibbler. It was back to the way things were during the days her father had been alive, relying on contributors to get enough materials to publish. There was nothing wrong with that, except that even Luna knew the Quibbler had grown since then. They couldn't just rely on contributors for the articles anymore. Mr. Nichols must have done a great deal of writing himself to get everything done.

But none of that mattered anymore. She was working at the Quibbler now and she would just have to do whatever she could to get it back on its feet.

Rather than feeling discouraged about the lack of employees, Luna just beamed a smile at the two that were left.

"So, where do I sit?" she asked cheerfully.

"In there," Pansy said behind her coffee mug.

She pointed with her quill to the door at the other end of the room, the vertical spot in the office that wasn't covered by a bookshelf or a bulletin board. Nodding, Luna walked across the office and to the door. She placed her hand on the door knob and turned it.

The door swung open immediately and there was a rustling sound as a giant white mass flooded out of the office. Luna instinctively jumped back a step and watched over a huge pile of envelopes fell all over the floor.

Then, standing in the middle of the mess, Luna looked down. The envelopes came from different senders, most of them had the words "URGENT", "FINAL WARNING" and "THE REAL FINAL WARNING" stamped on them. Luna picked up a random envelope from the pile.

A bill. No doubt one of many.

Looking up and into the office, Luna was able to see the hint of a desk and a chair in there, buried underneath all the letters.

Behind her, Pansy smirked.

"Welcome to The Quibbler."

* * *

_Mum!__  
Everything is fine here, Hogwarts is still standing. The first years are really short this year. It's your first day at working at the Quibbler. Tell me all about it!  
Love, Lacus_

Sealing the envelope, Lacus attached it the owl's leg.

"Be a good girl and send it to my mum quick!" she whispered, gently stroking the owl's long feathers. "I'll give you a treat when you get back!"

In the blink of an eye the owl set off and flew away from the owlery. Lacus watched it fly away with a smile on her face. This was her first letter home. She wondered how her mother was doing on her first day. Would she be able to handle whatever problem The Quibbler had? But then again, this was her mother; the one had a habit of attempting to do ten impossible things before lunch.

"Lacus, are you done yet?"

Turning around, Lacus saw Elaine Moran standing in the doorway, tapping her fingers rapidly against the wall.

Around school, Elaine Moran tended to be described in three B:s. Big, blonde and beautiful. Lacus considered herself to be above average when it came to height but even so Elaine was at least four inches taller than her. That combined with her two feet long mane of banana blonde hair made Elaine stand out in a crowd and it had been that way ever since they were little. Being slightly shorter and slightly less blonde, at times Lacus felt like "Elaine light" when standing next to her.

Elaine cast Lacus an urgent look.

"Okay, okay..." Smiling, Lacus gathered her things quickly and walked over to Elaine.

The two of them walked down the stairs and away from the owlery quickly, Elaine always one or two steps ahead of Lacus.

"What's the rush?" Lacus asked, shifting her book bag from one shoulder to another. "We still have time until transfigurations."

Although still walking ahead, Elaine looked over her shoulder and stared at Lacus with her mouth slightly open.

"Lacus, how can you even think about transfigurations at this time?" Elaine asked, clearly shocked. "Sarah Phillips said that they opened the sign ups for the choir today! I just found out fifteen minutes ago!"

Elaine jumped the last four steps of the stairs and hurried down the corridor leading to the Great Hall. Lacus increased her pace to keep up with her.

"Choir?" Lacus repeated in disbelief. "You're signing up for the choir?"

"Yes, and so are you!" Elaine answered, rounding a corner quickly. "You've been in a choir before haven't you? I remember you said something about it once."

If Lacus had not been so focused on keeping up with Elaine she would have stopped to protest. The last time she had seen Elaine in such a rush was when her edition of Witch Weekly had been accidentally delivered to Mary Brown in Gryffindor. Still, just thinking about the word choir made Lacus' heart beat ten times faster and it was definitely not in the good way. She tried to brush aside childhood memories of Luna convincing her to participate in a Mongolian throat singing choir but to be frank that memory was just too odd to forget, even for her.

The doors to the Great Halls came into sight and along with it the wall with the sign up sheets for different clubs. Elaine had been far from the only one to hear about the choir openings. There were at least twenty girls struggling to get to the sign up sheet while there were still openings.

Lacus swallowed.

"Elaine, I don't think..."

Her voice faded as Elaine started to make her way into the crowd, oblivious to Lacus trying to speak to her. Sighing, Lacus could only watch Elaine's blonde head slowly making its way to the sign up sheet. She was nearly disappointed when the angry looking Slytherin girl did not manage to push Elaine out of the way.

"I didn't think that girls could be this vicious. They should all sign up for the beater positions instead."

She recognized that voice. It sounded familiar but she couldn't remember where she had heard it, much less place the voice now. Lacus looked around but she couldn't see anyone who the voice might have belonged to. Everyone around her seemed to be busy either getting to the sign up sheet or cheering for someone who was trying.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. In just a moment, she managed to widen her eyes, drop her jaw, make all colours drain from her face and repeat a single thought in her head a million times.

_Nathanmontaguenathanmontaguenathanmontaguenathanmontaguenathanmontague._

Nathan Montague was standing there, smiling.

"Good thing that was you," he said. "Would have been weird if I was speaking to the completely wrong person."

It was as if Lacus was paralyzed. She couldn't move an inch and her face seemed to be frozen in the awkward, shocked look. When Nathan kept looking at her, she became painfully aware that she was supposed to laugh or something. Using every bit of strength in her body, she managed to curve her lips slightly and let out what was either a laugh or an imitation of a hyena.

Nathan did not appear to be able to tell the difference.

"So how are you doing?" he asked.

Lacus dug her fingernails into her hand tightly. Nathan Montague was asking her a question; she had to speak coherently this time.

"Good, good," she answered quickly. "I mean, not that good. School and all." She hoped that it was the right thing to say, she didn't want to come off as someone who loved school. "Potions is awful this year as usual. First lesson and I already melted a cauldron. It's just like first year."

Nathan raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yes, I destroyed my first cauldron back then," Lacus continued. "That's how Elaine and I became friends by the way. She was sitting next to me and noticed that I was crying over my cauldron, because it was melted. Hers was a little melted too but not as bad as mine... but anyway, I said that I was bad at potions and she said that she was bad at potions and then we both said that we could be bad at potions together."

It was when the last word had rolled off her tongue that she realized how quickly and how much she had spoken. She didn't speak this much usually but the words had just come out of her automatically. Why did she have to do that? She didn't even want to think about what Nathan thought of her, probably that she was the weirdest girl that he had ever met. Blushing, Lacus looked down at the floor. She could not see much of Nathan aside from his shoes at that angle but she would not be surprised if those shoes would start moving away and out of her sight.

"Finally!"

Something blonde flashed before her eyes and Lacus looked up to see that Elaine had joined them. She looked decisively more dishevelled than before but her eyes sparked with happiness.

"I made it!" Elaine announced, throwing her arms up. "There were only two spots left and I grabbed them for us! Oh, hello Nate!"

Lacus leaned her head a little closer to Elaine.

"Elaine, i don't really want to join..." she began.

"Sure you want to!" Elaine cut off happily. "Didn't you used to be in a choir?"

"You sing?" Nathan asked.

Lacus blushed even deeper. She was just about to open her mouth to answer when Elaine did it for her.

"She was in some sort of choir once when she was travelling with her mum," Elaine told. "I remember it was something funny... boat singing? What was it again?"

Both Elaine and Nathan turned to Lacus. Lacus lowered her eyes again and scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. Elaine was her friend and a good person but her intellect left something to be desired.

"Mongolian throat singing," Lacus muttered quickly, hoping that no one would catch it.

Unfortunately they did.

"Ah, I knew it was something like that!" Elaine acknowledged, utterly happy with herself for remembering something like that.

"That's..." Nathan began hesitantly. "Interesting."

It was strange that with all the magic that Hogwarts possessed, it still couldn't offer what a teenager needed most; a way to sink through the floor when she had reached the peak of embarrassment.

"So what are you doing here Nate?" Elaine asked. "Did you want to sign up for the choir too?"

"Oh no." Nathan waved his hands in front of him. "You wouldn't want to hear me sing. Actually I came here looking for people who might be interested in duelling. We're starting up the duelling club again so we really need people to sign up."

"I'll do it."

As if it wasn't enough that she had blurted out half of her life story before, more words slipped out of Lacus' mouth. It was only after she said it that she realized what she had done and she instinctively covered her mouth in horror.

The terrified look on her face did not seem to bother Nathan much. His eyes lit up upon hearing what Lacus had said.

"That's great!" He grinned widely. "Can't believe we have our first member already!"

Lacus was too shocked to do anything but stare at him.

"I'll get back to you about the schedule once that's done," Nathan went on. "I got to go and ask some more people now... Thanks Lacus!"

Just like that, he was gone. Lacus remained in the same position, eyes wide and her hands still covering her mouth. Elaine watched Nathan go, and then turned to Lacus with a puzzled look on her face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

In the midst of all this, Lacus almost felt like laughing. What was _not_ wrong?

* * *

Getting to the Leaky Cauldron from the Quibbler's office felt longer than the four day hiking Luna had done in the Himalaya last year. Despite all things she had to carry around during that hike, the weight on her shoulders had felt much lighter in comparison to the weight she was carrying around now. It was not equipment or sleeping bags burdening her shoulders now but rather the thought of the pile of bills that was still waiting at the office.

Luna dragged herself over to the counter and nearly fell against the counter. Pushing her elbows against the wooden counter, she released a breath and it was as if all her energy dissolved in the air of the murky old tavern.

"May I help you?"

A stocky, young waiter with greasy blonde hair was suddenly on the other side of the counter; Luna had not even noticed where he had come from.

"Um..." Luna began, words suddenly failing her.

There was a reason why she had come to the Leaky Cauldron. It was not just for lunch, the Leaky Cauldron was one of the busiest places at this time and she would have been better off going somewhere else to eat. But there was a reason...

"Hannah!" Luna blurted out suddenly as the name came back to her. "Is she working today?"

The waiter shook his head.

"Sorry, she's at home today. One of the girls has the flu."

"Oh."

Luna could not help but to feel a little disappointed. After spending the entire morning at the office meeting Pansy and Nigel, and then attempting to sort out all the bills, it would have been nice to see a friendly face. Hannah was Neville's wife after all and had always treated Luna nicely.

The young man behind the counter shrugged, then pick out a dish rag and wiped some spilled ketchup off the counter.

"Would you like some lunch?" he suggested, nodding towards the sign next to the counter.

Luna just glanced at it and saw the variety of lunch specials they served today. Just looking at the sign almost made her even more tired, not to mention trying to think about what lunch special to pick.

"I'll have..." she began but her voice faded as she suddenly switched to another train of thought. She looked at the waiter and smiled. "Get me something good, I'll let you decide."

Judging from the weird stare she got in return, Luna realized that this was an unusual request coming from a customer.

"Get me what's best on today's menu," she went on, sitting up a little straighter and still smiling. "I'm too tired to decide for myself."

Though he was still looking rather strangely at her, the waiter at least seemed to accept her order.

"Alright..." he said slowly. "Would you like to eat here at the bar or get a table?"

Turning around, Luna looked over the entire tavern. This was no doubt the busiest hour; everyone came to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. There were constantly more people entering and Luna felt people brush against her back as they tried to navigate through the crowded tavern. The question seemed irrelevant in this case; there were no empty seats at all. Even people who did not know each other shared a table in order to eat their meal and all the seats at the bar were already taken. It was looking around that Luna realized that she had been so focused on her own tiredness that she had not even noticed how crowded the tavern was that day.

Just as Luna was about to turn back and say that she would just eat at another place, something caught her sight. Others would have seen the almost empty table first, how the table could seat two people but only one chair was occupied. The one who occupied the table was reading a newspaper and holding it in a way that practically covered his entire face. But when Luna caught sight of the man, she immediately recognized him.

"I'm going to sit over there," she told, turning back to face the counter.

She nodded towards the small table where the man with the newspaper was sitting. The waiter leaned over the counter to get a better look and his mouth fell open slightly when he realized which table Luna was referring to.

"Oh no, ma'am," he breathed. "You can't sit at that table. Do you know who that is? He always sits alone."

Luna's lips drew into a smile.

"He has had a habit of doing that even though he doesn't always want to," she replied calmly.

Turning around, she left the counter. It took plenty of p's and q's to squeeze through the crowded area but once she got to the table there was no problem. Apparently, not only did he always sit alone, people did not dare to get too close to him. Perhaps it was out of fear of disturbing him, but one way or the other it had always been like that.

"Hello Harry."

The newspaper dropped. It had acted as a curtain between them and when it fell Luna found herself looking right into those familiar green eyes.

"Luna!" Harry exclaimed, obviously surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"

Luna smiled.

"I ordered lunch and I am currently hoping that you wouldn't mind sharing your table with me," she answered bluntly.

Flustered, Harry's cheeks turned slightly red and he quickly folded the newspaper and put it aside.

"Sorry, please sit down," he mumbled and stuck the folded newspaper into the pocket of his robe.

Harry rose in an attempt to draw the other chair out for Luna but she sat down before he managed to do it. His cheeks reddening a little more, Harry sat down against and scratched the back of his neck. Looking down, Luna saw that he had a half full bowl of onion soup and some bread in front of him.

"You've been here sitting here for a long time, haven't you?" she asked. "Your soup is cold."

Harry looked up and blinked, as if confused as to how she knew that. Luna thought that it was rather obvious, there was no steam at all coming from his soup. But the puzzled look on Harry's face amused her and she decided to let that little piece of information stay secret for the moment.

"So why did I hear that you always sit alone?"

Upon hearing her words, Harry chuckled. Luna did not quite understand why and stared at him waiting for an explanation.

"I'm sorry," Harry apologized as his laughter slowed down. But he was still smiling. "It just that... you don't waste any time dancing around the subject, do you? You haven't changed a bit."

Though she returned his smile, there was something that Luna felt was strange. The way Harry spoke gave her the distinct impression that he was unused to having people speak to him in that way.

"I like having a moment to myself," Harry answered, leaning back in the chair slightly. "I don't get that much at work or at home so lunch is my only chance. I asked the staff here if they could reserve the same table for me every day at lunch."

His words were light hearted. Looking at the man before her, it occurred to Luna how many years had passed since she had left. Back then he was just a boy, she was just a girl. The Harry sitting in front of her now was still Harry but living a very different life compared to before. He was married; he was a father and the head of the Auror department. But Luna wondered if the Harry she used to know would have gone out of his way to be alone.

"I guess being the head of the Auror department isn't easy," Luna said. "Do you enjoy your work?"

Harry opened his mouth but no words came out. It was like the words would have come out of him automatically, only this time he stopped himself. Perhaps the question was more complicated than it sounded.

A hot, steaming bowl of onion soup was suddenly placed before Luna and she looked up to see the waiter from the counter. He quickly put down a basket of fresh baked bread but did not waste any time leaving after he had served the food. Luna watched him hurry away from their table like he was afraid of offending them by staying a second longer than he was needed.

"Do people still do that around you?" Luna wondered, turning back to Harry. "Do they still get nervous?"

Harry snorted.

"I think the question is when they are going to stop," he replied, his fingers playing with the edge of a napkin on the table. He looked up and met Luna's eyes. "What about you? How has the first day at the Quibbler been so far?"

He had not answered her question about his work but she decided to let him slip away for now.

"Not really what I expected so far," Luna answered. She picked up the spoon and tasted the onion soup; it was salty. "All I've done so far is trying to sort out all the bills that have piled up... I think I will be doing that for quite some time."

Harry frowned and leaned just a few inches closer to the table.

"Is the Quibbler in trouble?" he asked.

It was a question that would usually be followed by "Is there anything I can do?" but Luna decided to speak so that Harry would not have to get to that point.

"Oh no." She waved her spoon lightly. "It's nothing that I can't take care of. There are just the bills to take care of in the beginning. Sooner or later things will be steady and I can concentrate on writing articles again."

Harry smiled and the smile reached his eyes.

"With you in charge, I guess we can still count on the Quibbler to print the unconventional truths."

Something in her stomach fluttered when Luna saw Harry smiling. It was definitely not out of hunger because her appetite was steadily decreasing each time she had another spoonful of the onion soup. It was something else, she remembered having felt this kind of fluttering before and even back then it had not been a good thing. She should not be looking so much at his smile but find something else to focus on.

"Not exactly unconventional truths..." Luna retorted. "But rather things that are free from the influence of those in power. You do remember what happened to The Daily Prophet? Even now it still receives funds from the Ministry who has influence over the editor and the staff. It is more of a channel for those in power to keep the public in order and feed the public with a one sided view on things rather than a place of professional journalism."

The long speech sprung out of her but the more she spoke and thought about the topic the less fluttering in her stomach. What she had just said were no news, Luna was more than used to debating the credibility of the Daily Prophet and had been for over twenty years.

Harry scratched the back of his neck. The smile on his face had changed, it was no longer the true smile that reached his eyes but rather one of awkwardness.

"Um..." he mumbled, unsure of what to say. "Um, Ginny writes for the Prophet now."

"Oh."

Despite all the people in the tavern, each of them speaking loudly to each other, Luna felt as if the whole place had gone quiet. The sound of her spoon scraping against the bowl seemed to thunder in her eyes as well as the rustling as Harry played with an unused paper napkin.

"Um... I..."

She tried to speak but no actual words came out. There was nothing that she could think of to say that would lessen the tension that she had brought on herself. Deep inside she cursed herself for it. Normally she had no problems voicing her opinion and dealing with whatever reaction people had to what she said. Usually she did not even care if people had a negative reaction to her or thought that she was awkward and strange. But this was different. This was Harry and Ginny, and that made everything much stranger and more complicated than they should have been.

Luna did not know how much time passed as she sat there scraping her bowl with her spoon and Harry playing with the napkin. But after some time, Harry stopped playing with his napkin and looked at his watch.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to get going now," he apologized. "Work is waiting, you know how it is."

Luna forced a smile in an attempt.

"Yes, I understand."

It was simpler to just agree than to say that this was the first time she had an ordinary job like everyone else; that she had an office to return to after lunch. She was only beginning to learn about how it was.

Harry rose up from his chair. His robe hung over the back of the chair and he swung it around his shoulders casually.

"It's weird isn't it?" he remarked. "How we keep running into each other after all this time? First at the platform, then this morning and now..."

This was only her first day. Her first day working at the Quibbler and she had already run into Harry twice.

"I guess," Luna said quietly and looked up at Harry.

He was ready to leave now; having pushed the chair that he had sat on back towards the table. As his hands rested on the back of the chair, he looked at straight Luna. It was impossible for her to avoid his eyes even if she had wanted to.

"Good luck with the rest of the day, Luna."

He smiled at her, again.

Flutter.

Her heart skipped.

"You too. Have a good day."

She did not know how she managed to utter those words. All she could think about were the feelings inside her, alien and strange feelings that should no longer exist. With a nod Harry turned around and left. Luna did not watch him go, but stared down at her onion soup. She did not know when he would have been out of sight if she had watched him go or when he would have left the tavern. But her mind was filled with thoughts of him long after Harry had left.

This was going to be much harder than she had thought.

* * *

When Luna got back to the office, she found an owl perched by the window. It appeared to be waiting for her, because it flew up and dropped the letter in her hands the moment she walked it. Afterwards it flew back to the window sill, patiently waiting for an answer.

Walking around her desk and slumping into her chair, Luna tore the envelope open and unfolded the letter inside. She recognised the handwriting immediately and could not help but to smile.

_Mum!  
Everything is fine here, Hogwarts is still standing. The first years are really short this year. It's your first day at working at the Quibbler. Tell me all about it!  
Love, Lacus_

Just as Luna read the last few words she heard a noise behind her. Spinning the chair around, she saw another owl landing on the window sill. The owl held a letter with its foot and stuck it out for Luna to take. Luna took the letter reluctantly; she hoped that it was not another bill.

Opening the envelope, she pulled out the letter and unfolded it. Just as before, she recognised the handwriting the moment she laid eyes on it.

_Mum,__  
I talk too much.  
Love, Lacus_

Sighing, Luna picked up her quill and started to write her reply.

_Dear Lacus,  
So do I.  
Love, mum._

* * *

"Lacus, calm down... it really wasn't that bad."

"Wasn't that bad?" Lacus took a break from burying her face in her pillow to look at Elaine in disbelief. "I completely made a fool out of myself in front of him! I mean... what was I thinking? Throat singing! Telling him just how bad at potions I am! Guh!"

Lacus turned her head back and sank down into the pillow again. Sitting on the edge of Lacus' bed, Elaine managed a sympathetic smile and tucked some of Lacus' hair behind her ear so that she could see her face better.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Elaine encouraged. "Maybe he'll just think that you're cute and endearing. I mean, how many girls did Mongolian boat singing?"

"Throat singing," Lacus muttered, her voice slightly muffled by the pillow.

"Exactly," Elaine agreed. "Besides, you probably think it was worse than it was. Nate is a nice guy."

Lacus sat up in the bed and faced Elaine.

"So nice that he won't say anything when he thinks I'm weird," Lacus finished, crossing her arms.

Elaine rolled her eyes.

"And so nice that he was really happy when you said that you would join the duelling club," she pointed out. "He was really happy about that, I could tell."

Lacus lowered her eyes. This was typical of Elaine; with her never ending optimism she only saw the good in situations and was completely oblivious to the bad things. The word hopeless didn't exist in her vocabulary. Still, she did have a point that Nathan had been happy when she had said yes.

"It was probably only because no one had said yes yet," Lacus mumbled.

Elaine smiled.

"Well, that's a start, isn't it?"

"I don't know anything about duelling," Lacus protested. "I'll make a complete idiot out of myself."

"Hey... you didn't know anything about throat singing until you tried either, right?" Elaine said; her smile even more radiant than before.

Lacus forced herself to return a smile. Elaine really could not have picked a worse example.

* * *

Working at Auror department was an exciting job. Unlike other jobs with the ministry, it did not include routine. Every day looked different; there were always new missions to assign, new sightings or new evidence. Back when Harry had been out working in the field that had meant chasing one Death Eater on the run after the other, using every trick in the book to find those who threatened the wizarding society. Nowadays he was the head of the Aurors department and though his mission remained the same, the job was quite differently.

It was no longer the long missions that kept him from home, but the long hours at the office. One meeting after the other and there was always another document for him to read, write or just sign. No matter how many hours he worked overtime there was always another pile waiting for him to return the next day. Another pile keeping him from coming home for dinner on time, another pile keeping him from having breakfast with his family. His work was important, he knew that. He just wasn't convinced that it was the most important thing anymore.

It was almost dark when Harry walked down Diagon Alley. Summer was over and the autumn chill forced him to stick his hands into his pocket as he walked on. The alley was nearly empty save for the few people walking by briskly so that they could get home as fast as possible.

Usually Harry was one of them. Lily had been a little more needy than usual now that both James and Albus were at Hogwarts. Harry kept thinking that one of these days he should go home a little earlier, be home in time for dinner so that Lily wouldn't feel her brothers absence too much. But there was always something that needed to be done. Today he had an errand at Gringotts and the goblins were waiting for him, no doubt waiting impatiently.

He was nearly at Gringotts when he stopped walking. To his left was Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Old Florean had been killed many years ago in the beginning of the second war, but his daughter-in-law had opened up the ice cream parlour again after the war and kept the place going in his memory. But since her retirement the ice cream parlour had closed once again. The sign was still there, but windows were boarded up and there was a note stuck on the door.

But it was not the state of the ice cream parlour that made Harry stopped. After all Florean's daughter-in-law had announced that she would retire at the end of the summer and that none of her children wanted to take over the business.

It was the woman standing in front of and staring at the ice cream parlour that made him stop.

At first he thought that it could not possibly be her again, not because of the improbability of her being there but because it seemed too much of a coincidence to bump into someone three times a day.

But he saw the long blonde hair, the blue robe that he had seen both at breakfast and lunch.

Shaking his head, Harry smiled and walked up to stand by her side.

"Wow, we've really got to stop meeting like this," he said.

Luna turned her head and her already large eyes widened slightly as she noticed him for the first time.

"Oh, Harry! What are you doing here?"

"I'm on my way to Gringotts," Harry answered, nodding in the direction he was supposed to be going.

"Long day, huh?"

Luna smiled knowingly and Harry chuckled.

"Not longer than any other day... how about you?"

Luna shrugged.

"It could be worse," she admitted. "I miss my daughter though."

Now it was Harry's turn to look at Luna knowingly. Ever since James started his first year at Hogwarts Harry thought that he would get used to not having him at home. But James had been home all summer and now that Albus was at Hogwarts too the house felt a little too empty and quiet in the evenings.

"Lacus, right?"

Luna nodded.

"I'm so used to having her with me," she told. "Or going off somewhere when she's at Hogwarts that I'm too busy to think that I'm by myself. I guess it's because it's always been just the two of us."

Some of the words that Luna spoke caught Harry's attention.

"The two of you?" he repeated. When Luna stared at him blankly, he clarified. "What about her father?"

"Rolf!" Luna exclaimed suddenly as if she had just remembered him. "Oh no, we separated when Lacus was three years old. He's in Ireland now, I think."

"Oh." Harry looked at Luna carefully. "So you're not married?"

Luna shook her head.

"Never was... we were just together for a few years. But we're still good friends, we visit him whenever we have time."

"I see..."

The brisk footsteps of someone passing by echoed as the person walked against the cobblestones, bringing Harry back to the present. He was reminded of why he had stopped in the first place.

"So, what are you doing out here?" he asked Luna.

"I was going to get some ice cream." Luna smiled half heartedly and glanced at the boarded up windows of the ice cream parlour. "But it looks like I'm out of luck."

"Ice cream at this time of the year?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "Summer is over, you know."

Luna's smile widened.

"Who says that you have to have ice cream in the summer?" she mused, turning to look at the ice cream parlour again. "It's never too late for anything, if you know what I mean."

Her words struck a chord in him, like they went right through all of his defences and imprinted them into his mind. He could not describe what it was, but the way she said it made the words stay inside of him.

"I guess... that's true," he managed to say after a while.

Pulling her coat a little tighter around her, Luna took a deep breath.

"I guess I should get going now," she said.

"Yeah, me too," Harry mumbled, his hands digging further into his pockets. He had no idea why he did that.

"Have a nice evening then." Luna smiled again. "It's been nice seeing you again. Really."

There was something about her last words that made Harry forgot the chilly evening air, he felt warmer somehow.

"Yeah, you have a good evening too, Luna."

Lowering her eyes, Luna walked past him. He did not watch her go but he listened to her footsteps, each and every one of them until they faded away and she was gone. But rather than going forward, Harry took one more look at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. He suddenly thought of that summer before his third year, when he had spent nearly every day and Florean himself treated Harry to free sundaes. It felt so long ago, like it was a different lifetime altogether.

_It's never too late for anything, if you know what I mean._

It happened that Harry barely had the time to register it in his mind. But suddenly he was going forward towards Gringotts, but for an entire different reason that he had planned.

* * *

It was when Luna had gotten back to the cottage that she remembered that she had not answered Lacus' first letter. After brewing a pot of tea, she poured herself a cup and sat down in the armchair with a piece of parchment and a quill. She began writing the letter.

_Dear Lacus,_

She stopped, not sure what to write. Lacus had asked her to tell her how the first day at the Quibbler had been. So much had happened today that Lacus did not know where to begin. She thought of the pile of bills at the office, most of them still waiting for be paid, and felt slightly queasy.

With her free hand Luna picked up her cup of tea and took a sip. It was warm, sweet and comforting in a way.

Today had not been all about bills. There was finally taking over the Quibbler, something that Luna used to dream about doing when her father was still alive. There was discovering that Pansy was working at the Quibbler, along with young Nigel, bumping into Harry three times by coincidence. Today had really been about a lot of other things than bills.

_Dear Lacus,  
Today I embarked on a new adventure.  
Love, mum_

* * *

"You did what?"

Harry knew that Ginny wouldn't understand. Not that he generally thought badly of his wife, but he knew that this was just one of those things that she would not understand and he had been right. Watching Ginny stand on the other side of the dining table, her arms crossed and her mouth slightly open, he knew that she was in a state of shock.

"Now, listen to me..." Harry begun.

"If this is a joke, Harry, then it really isn't funny," Ginny breathed, her face growing pale. "In case you missed it, Aprils Fools was a few months ago."

"It's not a joke," Harry answered. "I really did it."

There was silence.

And then chaos.

"You quit your job and bought an ice cream parlour?!"


	3. The man who serves ice cream

**The Lovegood Way**

**Chapter 3: The man who serves ice cream**

Thank you so much for reviewing the previous chapter! Here comes the next one, I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Harry Potter's change of occupation was not an easy one. The Daily Prophet's headline blasted out the news two days before Harry officially handed in his letter of resignation to the minister of magic. The news that he had purchased the ice cream parlour and would run it himself spread like wildfire. Even though the ice cream parlour would not reopen right away the reporters flocked in front of it all day in hopes of catching a glimpse of Harry and get the scoop they all wanted to write.

But despite all the reporters who came, the windows remained boarded up and no official statements were released. The minister of magic had nothing to say aside from that it had been an honour to work with Harry Potter for so many years and that he wished him all the best. The reporters came diligently every day, some waiting for hours after hours until it became dark and they gave up for the day.

But it was one ordinary Wednesday, when the sun had set and the reporters gone home, that a particular person came.

Luna walked by the ice cream parlour every day on her way to the Quibbler's office. On some days the reporters would already be standing there in the morning but they were usually gone by the time she left the office. None of the Quibbler's staff, meaning her, Pansy and Nigel, reported on the news that Harry Potter was opening an ice cream parlour. Luna had seen the headlines of the Daily Prophet, some calling Harry a victim of middle age crisis, and she had no wish in lowering the Quibbler to that standard.

The sign "Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour" was still up and the windows were still boarded. In a way the ice cream parlour looked no different from that night two weeks ago when she and Harry had met in the very same place she was standing in right now. The only thing that had changed was the ownership of the ice cream parlour.

Just as Luna turned to leave, the door to the ice cream parlour suddenly opened. She looked up and saw Harry, looking strange reminiscent of his younger self. The straight, dark robes he wore as the head of the Aurors department were gone and its stead was a pair of worn Muggle jeans and a grey sweatshirt. When Harry spotted Luna he smiled and ran his hand through his hair in an effort to tame it but it ended up standing up even more.

"I thought it was you standing here," he said. "The reporters usually don't stick around this late."

Luna turned to face him and returned his smile.

"You don't give them enough free ice cream to stay?"

Harry chuckled, suddenly looking more relaxed than Luna had seen ever since they had met again. His hand holding up the door, Harry stepped aside and kept the doorway open.

"Come on in," he invited. "You're not out of luck if you want ice cream this time."

Luna hesitated. It was getting late, she should be getting home. But then she saw the warm, happy look on Harry's face. He had never looked this carefree before for as long as Luna had known him. Seeing him like this made her feel warm inside and she was not eager to part with that feeling.

"Alright then."

She walked past Harry and into the ice cream parlour and he followed shortly after, the door closing behind them.

Just like the exterior, the ice cream parlour's interior had not changed much. The same sturdy, dark wooden tables and chairs were still there as well as the old wooden counter with the cash register. The old chandelier still shone in the middle of the parlour. But the fresh smell of paint lingered in the air and the walls were now painted in a champagne gold. Creamy white cloths had been laid across the tables recently and the cushions on the old wooden stools by the counter had been replaced.

Harry walked around the counter, taking his place there. Luna walked over to the counter as well, sitting down on one of the stools opposite him.

"What do you think?" Harry grinned, reminding Luna of a child who had just finished a task that he was immensely proud of.

"It looks good," Luna replied.

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Just good?"

"I think it looks good but you need to put a little more you into it," she clarified. "It's your place now after all."

Harry's eyes wandered over the ice cream parlour. Luna could see how his eyes looked all over the place as if trying to study it all over again. She bit her bottom lip. It was not in her nature to keep silent when she had something to say but she hoped that she had not hurt Harry's feelings or brought down the enthusiasm he had just felt.

"Maybe I should get some pictures up on the wall," Harry mused after a while, rubbing his chin as if already trying to pick which photographs to put up.

Luna smiled, relieved.

"I think that would do the trick."

Nodding, Harry turned to Luna again.

"So what will it be?"

Luna looked to her right. The other side of the counter was protected by a glass cover. Underneath that cover lay an array of containers, each of them with different sorts of ice cream. Luna looked over the ice cream containers, there were so many of them. There were ice creams with all the colours of the rainbow, some mixed with pieces of fruits, nuts, chocolate, cookies and everything else that she could imagine. Aside from the ice cream there were also bottles with different toppings. Her mouth watered just by looking at everything, yet she could not pin down which one she wanted.

"I can't decide," she admitted.

"Sure you can," Harry assured. "You don't have to pick one, you can pick two or three if you want."

"No, it's still too difficult."

Luna slid off the stool and walked over the ice cream. She leaned her head so close to the glass clover that her nose almost touched it.

"Should I get chocolate frog and macadamia nuts? Or maybe the cookie dough and liquorice... oh, the Mayan chocolate one looks good..."

Shaking his head, Harry followed Luna. He tapped his finger on her head lightly to gain her attention.

"Luna," he started as Luna looked up at him. "You do know that you can come back as many times as you want after I open? You don't have to try everything at once?"

Upon hearing his words, Luna grinned.

"Then I'll have the chilli chocolate, liquorice and strawberry with maraschino cherries on top."

Shaking his again, but this time with a smile on his face, Harry picked up a bowl from behind the counter and began scooping up the ice cream. Luna's eyes followed him as he put on the cherries and then set the bowl on the counter where she had sat before. He presented Luna with a spoon just as she sat back on the stool.

"Enjoy."

Still grinning, Luna accepted the spoon and ate a spoonful of the ice cream. All the different flavours melted in her mouth.

"This is really good!"

Harry looked sceptically at the strange mix of ice cream. Luna had to admit that the dark grey colour of the liquorice ice cream did not look too good but the taste made up for it and more.

"So when do you open?" she asked.

Harry sighed.

"Tomorrow, I guess..." he answered, looking weary suddenly. "I've hired two people to help me out so the workload isn't really a problem. It's just all the reporters standing out there that I have a problem with. They just won't quit..."

Luna suddenly stopped eating and Harry's last words faded as he watched her. She suddenly picked up her bag and dug into it fervently.

"What are you doing?" he wondered.

He watched Luna as she started taking one thing after the other out her bag in her search. Scraps of parchment, quills, an African mask, books and a bunch of sticks with Chinese characters on them. Harry picked up the African mask and studied it just as Luna finally appeared to find what she was looking for.

"There!" she declared.

She grabbed Harry's hand and he felt something cold against his palm. When Luna released his hand he saw that he was holding a few sickles and knuts. He stared at them with a puzzled expression as Luna began to put everything else back into her bag.

"Why are you paying me?" he asked. "The ice cream is on me."

"I know," Luna replied, stuffing the African mask back into her bag. "And thank you, but it would be bad luck for the rest of your business if your first customer didn't pay wouldn't it?"

She finished packing up her bag and returned to her ice cream. Harry chuckled. He did not try to return the money to Luna but rather than putting it in the cash register he stuffed the coins inside his pocket for some reason.

The things Luna did made sense in her way and Harry thought to himself that he was starting to see why.

He heard a noise and looked up just as the door opened. There was a rush of cold air and a brown leaf blew into the ice cream parlour. Ginny Potter came through the door, her cheeks slightly flushed red from the cold. She stopped in the middle of the doorway as she gazed at the scene before her, her mouth a little open and her hand still holding the doorknob.

Upon hearing the door open Luna looked over her shoulder.

It could have been another tense moment, another moment frozen in shock. "Another disaster" was what Harry was thinking.

But Luna got up from her chair and around the same time Ginny quickly put a smile on her face and closed the door after herself.

"Hello Luna..." she began. "I didn't expect to see you here."

Ginny glanced towards Harry as she spoke the last few words but then turned to Luna again.

Looking very different from the woman who had previous just sat by the counter and eaten ice cream, Luna stood a little straighter and looked right into Ginny's eyes as she spoke.

"I was just passing by and Harry asked me if I wanted to see the place," she answered honestly. "I didn't mean to be a bother..."

"Nonsense." Ginny smiled. Harry could not put his finger on what it was but it was different from her usual smile. "So what do you think?"

"It looks good."

Harry found it somewhat disturbing how both Ginny and Luna were smiling at each other but neither of them looked particularly sincere. It was strange but something felt weird underneath all the friendliness. He wanted to open his mouth and say something but he didn't know what.

"I should get going," Luna said, picking up her bag. "I have to do some work for the Quibbler at home."

"That's a shame." Ginny stepped aside to make way for Luna. "But it's good seeing you again."

"Yeah, you too. Good night then."

Luna looked over her shoulder, casting a quick glance at Harry.

"Thanks for the ice cream."

"Um... you're welcome," Harry replied, feeling awkward for some reason.

Luna's lips twitched a little, as if wanting to smile for real. But the half smile was barely there and before Harry knew it Luna walked across the parlour, past Ginny and left. As the door closed behind Luna, Ginny walked over to the counter. She set down her bag and propped her elbows against the counter, leaning towards it slightly.

"So..." she began, looking at Harry. "You want to tell me what that was about?"

Ginny looked straight into Harry's eyes and waited for him to answer. Under her gaze Harry felt his cheeks become slightly warmer and he cursed himself for it. He felt like she was expecting him to say something that would eventually require him asking for her forgiveness.

"She was standing out there and I thought that she might want to see the place," Harry answered, taking the bowl away from the counter while avoiding Ginny's gaze. "She's our old friend, there's nothing weird about that."

Ginny bit her bottom lip.

"I guess not," she shrugged, pretending to look away. "It's just that she's been popping up a whole lot more often than she used to recently."

"Twice," Harry corrected, grabbing a dish rag and starting to wipe the counter. "You've bumped into her twice."

Ginny looked up at Harry again.

"And how many times have you seen her recently?"

Perhaps it was the way Ginny was looking at him but Harry did not particularly like the way this conversation was going. With a sigh, he put aside the dish rag and stood by the counter, right in front of Ginny and meeting her eyes.

"Ginny, how was your day?" he asked.

Ginny stared back at him blankly. Harry did not look away and remained standing just as he was. It was not that he was trying to deliberately change the subject but he would rather talk about something that wouldn't make Ginny feel insecure for no reason.

"My day?" Ginny repeated, her eyes wide.

"Yes, your day," Harry clarified.

A little taken back by his question, Ginny broke eye contact and her eyes seemed to wander all over the place as she pulled back from the counter. Instead she sat down on the same stool that Luna had occupied just a few minutes ago.

"Pretty good," Ginny admitted and Harry felt relief upon hearing her words. "Lily was so happy when I dropped her off at Percy's place. She's been looking forward to playing with Lucy."

Harry smiled upon the thought. Though Lily had no sisters, she had plenty of cousins to play with. Lucy was one of her favourites, especially since the two of them were close in age.

"She's spending the night there," Ginny went on.

Harry frowned.

"Why?" he questioned. "It's a weekday."

Ginny bit her bottom lip again. She took a paper napkin from the napkin holder next to the cash register and started to play with it, folding it randomly.

"I thought we could use some time to talk," she told. "You know about... this."

She looked up and her eyes wandered over the ice cream parlour. Ever since he had bought the place Ginny had been unable to call the ice cream parlour by any name, just referring to it as "this". Then again Harry had not exactly figured out a name for the place yet and Ginny referring to the ice cream parlour as "this" was probably the best that he could hope for. Considering the way she had reacted that night when he had told her anything else was good.

"I get asked a lot of questions at work," Ginny continued. "About this place, what you're planning to do with it, why you quit your job, what's going through your mind..."

"We've never cared about what people say about us," Harry cut off, his frown deepening. "Why should we start now? Who cares what people say?"

Ginny pursed her lips together and she looked intensely at the paper napkin she was still playing with.

"It's not about them, Harry," she muttered. "It's about us."

Harry took a deep breath. He knew what was coming. Ginny stopped playing with the napkin and sat up straight. Harry caught her gaze; her eyes were hard and looked like they had become a shade darker. He had been married long enough to Ginny to recognize this look and know that she was furious on the inside.

"You didn't even tell me that you were thinking about buying this place, much less quit your job! Never mind that people don't know what's going through your mind, I don't even know that and I'm your wife!"

"Ginny..." Harry placed both hands on the counter. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you but this is just something that I decided on. I made up my mind in two seconds or something like that."

"Quitting your job and buying an ice cream parlour isn't something normal people just decide on in two seconds!" Ginny retorted hotly. "You're going from the head of the Aurors department to selling ice cream! What on earth are you thinking?!"

Harry felt his heart beat faster and his breathing speed up. He pressed his hands against the counter, his fingernails digging into them.

"We both said that my work was taking too much time," he spoke through gritted teeth. "I was almost never home in time for dinner, I was always stressed and had too much to do... you used to say how much you wished that I could take some more time off to spend with the kids or just have more time for the two of us!"

"Yes, I did!" Ginny shouted, standing up so that she and Harry were at the same level. "But I'm your wife, Harry! You would think that you would at least run these things by me before making such a huge decision!"

"Because you would have welcomed the idea with open arms if I had told you before," Harry scoffed.

Ginny's eyes narrowed.

"I don't know what middle age crisis you are going through," she hissed. "But you better figure out what the hell is going on with you..."

Something inside Harry went cold.

"Middle age crisis?" Harry repeated, crossing his arms. "Been reading the Prophet much lately?"

Ginny suddenly went quiet.

The words felt recycled, Harry remembered using and hearing them the very same night that he had first told Ginny that he had bought the ice cream parlour. In fact, the whole conversation was starting to feel old with nothing new being contributed to it.

They stood there, staring at each other across the counter. Harry refused to back down, refused to look away. He could have handled this better; at some level he knew that Ginny had a right to be angry at him for that. But her resorting to calling his actions a part of a middle age crisis was not exactly an example of good character either.

Finally, something in Ginny's eyes softened. She let out a breath, Harry did not even know that she had been holding it, and ran her hand through her hair.

"Sorry, I didn't mean..." she began, closing her eyes for a moment.

Harry kept staring at her even when she did not finish the sentence.

"Didn't mean what?" he asked.

Ginny opened her eyes and sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry I said that," she apologized, sitting down on the stool again. "Let's just forget this for now. It's late, we're both tired and we should be getting home. We'll finish talking about this some other time."

The last part she had left out would have been really interesting to hear. But the Ginny that was sitting before him now looked tired and worn, very unlike the one who had just stood there and yelled at him. She had run her hand through her hair, it looked messed up. She had reached for the paper napkin again and was playing with it while avoiding Harry's gaze. Harry uncrossed his arms; seeing her like this made him calm down enough to realize that she was right.

The discussion was far from over but there was no use in continuing it now. If they did, it would only end badly.

"I'm just gonna finish up here and then we can go home," he mumbled.

Ginny nodded and Harry grabbed the dish rag and walked away from her. He began to wipe off the tables, one last detail before the ice cream parlour would open the next morning. Ginny stayed by the counter, not saying a word.

Though he occupied himself with his work, Harry felt uncomfortable with this kind of silence. The hurtful words exchanged before still lingered in the air. He figured that he should make some sort of attempt to reconcile with her. After all she had apologized for what she had said.

"Ginny?"

Harry turned to Ginny just as she looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"Um... do you want some ice cream or something?"

She stared at him for a while. There was silence and then she shook her head.

"No thanks... I don't really feel like having some right now."

* * *

Luna had barely time to reflect on the earlier encounter between her, Harry and Ginny before something else came up. The moment she appeared in the fireplace in her cottage and the flames of the Floo powder died down, two owls headed straight for her. Each of them dropped a letter in her hands, flew out the open kitchen window and into the night. Standing there covered in ashes with a letter in each hand, Luna released a sigh before stepping out of the fireplace.

One of the envelopes was addressed to "Mum".

Luna put the other letter on the coffee table and then plopped down on the couch. Her legs hanging over the armrest of the couch and her head using the other as a pillow, she eagerly opened the envelope and took out the letter inside.

_Dear mum,_

_Tomorrow the duelling club, the one I signed up for, is having its first meeting. I am scared to death and am positively sure that nothing good can come out of this. If something happens, you can tell everyone that your daughter died honourably trying to gain the attentions of a boy will probably be too busy to notice._

_Love, Lacus_

Smiling to herself, Luna cast a summoning charm on a quill and a piece of parchment. Drawing her knees up and placing the parchment against it, she began to write her reply.

_Dear honourable daughter,_

_I think you might be suffering from the hot balloon condition. One of its main symptoms is fear of being blasted through the air. There are two cures for it, be pricked quickly and take off soaring through the air or release the air slowly. The latter method is easier and less painful but then you would have never flown away at all. Do your best, you might even have fun._

_Love, mum._

Finishing writing, Luna picked up the letter from Lacus again. Her thumb ran against the rough texture of the parchment and her eyes looked over the words over and over again.

Luna looked up and around the living room. The flames of the fireplace had died down and the embers started to fade. Nothing else moved. The sounds she could hear was her own breathing and the cuckoo clock ticking away. Strangely enough the sound of the clock made the cottage feel even quieter; it reminded her that it was the only thing besides her that made any sound. Everything else was still and silent. There was no Lacus to talk to, only her letters.

Her chest suddenly tightened as she tried to breathe and before Luna knew it she was holding her breath. Bringing her hand up, she touched her throat and swallowed a sob. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down.

Sitting here was so quiet, so lonely without Lacus. The travels had kept her from actually experiencing the silence and feeling like a part of her was gone. But nowadays it became so clear when she came home in the evenings to the silence and there was no one there waiting for her. All she had were the letters.

Upon thinking about the letters, she remembered that another letter had been delivered. Opening her eyes, Luna released the breath that she had been holding. She shook her head as if wanting to shake all the sad feelings off her and then reached for the unopened letter lying on the coffee table.

_To Luna Lovegood,__  
I, Mrs. Augusta Longbottom,  
request__ the pleasure of your company  
at__ the Longbottom residence  
on__ Saturday, September 16th,  
at__ seven o'clock_

Underneath the writing Augusta Longbottom had signed her name. Luna blinked, staring at the card and wondering for a moment if it had been delivered to the wrong person. But then again it was her name on it. But the writing sounded so formal and stiff, for a lack of a better word. Usually Augusta came over personally to invite her and Lacus to dinner or just sent a casual written note asking them to come over. The only time Luna could remember receiving a formal letter like this was on some sort of special occasion or celebration. This invitation did not reveal anything about what sort of occasion this was.

_I guess I better go..._ Luna thought, giving the invitation one more look before setting it down on the coffee table. _It looks as if it's something important._

* * *

Folding the letter from Luna, Lacus tucked it into her book bag as she raced down the stairs. Elaine was at her side, struggling to keep up with Lacus while tying a ribbon around her long, wild hair.

"As if signing up for the duelling club wasn't bad enough already, I'm also late to the first meeting," Lacus muttered, jumping down the last few steps and turning left to a long corridor.

"Relax!" Elaine encouraged, trying to tie the ribbon. "You're not late, you're just not ten minutes early like you usually are. And take it easy... it probably isn't as bad as you think."

Lacus sighed. Elaine's words reminded her of Luna's letter. Lacus had just received it that morning and carried it with her ever since. She found comfort in reading her mother's advice but at the same time there was that knot in her stomach that refused to disappear. She didn't have a talent for spells; much less the quick thinking that was required in duelling. She didn't finish last in Transfigurations or Defence against the Dark Arts but she certainly was no where near the first to master a spell.

Sighing, Elaine gave up trying to tame her hair into a ponytail. She shook her head and her banana blonde hair cascaded down her back.

"Cheer up, Nate is going to be there after all!"

Lacus swallowed. Like that was going to make her feel better.

The classroom where the duelling club was supposed to be came in sight. The door was half open and from where she was Lacus could see other students standing and talking amongst each other. Elaine patted Lacus on the shoulder.

"Good luck! See you at dinner!"

Just like that Elaine had turned around and gone in the opposite direction. Lacus hurried towards the classroom, the thought of coming to the meeting late was worse than just coming to the meeting. She pushed the door open and entered just as a voice called out:

"Alright everyone, let's have a seat!"

Two lines of chairs had been arranged, each on one side of the room. A quick look around the room told Lacus that there were about thirty students in the classroom who began to find a seat as the voice had instructed. Lacus quickly sat down on the closest chair, setting her book bag down on the floor.

Standing in the middle of the classroom was Neville and upon seeing him Lacus felt as if some of the weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Neville turned around and caught Lacus' gaze. He acknowledged her with a small nod and Lacus smiled in return. Neville was her favourite teacher, not just because he was "uncle Neville" outside of Hogwarts but Lacus could not count the times she had misunderstood something in Herbology and Neville had the patience to explain and show it as many times as it took for her to understand.

Once everyone had sat down and moved out of the way Lacus could see that Professor Flitwick was standing next to Neville.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts duelling club," Neville spoke, looking over the students sitting on their chairs. "While Professor Flitwick and I will be leading the club, it's due to the interest and the commitment of you, the students, that this club has been reformed."

Neville glanced to his left. Lacus followed the direction he was looking at and found that Nathan Montague was sitting opposite her on the other side of the classroom. Nathan looked up and caught Lacus' eyes. He smiled at her and despite feeling as if her whole body was frozen, Lacus managed to smile back at him.

"It's our pleasure to be teaching you in the art of duelling," Professor Flitwick spoke. "With that, let us begin by demonstrating..."

Lacus watched as Neville and Professor Flitwick turned to face each other. It felt a little strange seeing as Professor Flitwick was much shorter than Neville but the old professor showed his might when he fired a spell towards Neville. Lacus' heart skipped as she saw a blue jet of light fly towards Neville like a dart. But Neville raised his wand calmly and waved it. The blue dart seemed to bounce just two feet away from Neville before fading into nothing.

Lacus heard people sitting next to her gasp and saw some on the other side dropping their jaws. Neville was known as the mild mannered and fair Herbology teacher. But the easy and quick way he had deflected the curse reminded her, and probably all the others as well, that Neville was a war hero. Lacus had heard her mother and Mrs. Longbottom speak about Neville's brave acts in his youth more than once but watching him duel with Professor Flitwick made her truly realize it.

Like everyone else in the classroom, Lacus stared intensely as Professor Flitwick and Neville duelled. Once they finished the duel, the classroom seemed to roar with the sound of the applauses. Amidst the awe Lacus felt, the insecurity started grow inside her and she wondered if she even had the potential to be half as good as they were.

It took some time before the applauses died down but after that Professor Flitwick and Neville began to show the basics on duelling. Lacus watched as they went through the proper stances and the elementary spells, trying hard to memorize everything they said.

"Alright, everyone gather in pairs and practice!" Neville instructed once they were done.

The classroom was filled with a general buzz as people turned towards each other and got up from their chairs. Lacus rose from her seat reluctantly, watching as everyone else automatically seemed find someone to practice with. She usually did everything with Elaine in class but Elaine wasn't here now. Lacus bit her lip and looked around nervously.

What was she going to do? Who was she going to ask? She knew most of the people in there by their names but nothing more than that.

"Hello there."

Lacus looked up to see Neville walking up to here.

"It's great to see you here," Neville smiled. "I didn't think you were into duelling much."

"Oh, I'm not that..." Lacus began but stopped herself as she realized what she was about to say. She couldn't tell Neville that she really had no interest in duelling and only signed up because of a guy. "Um, I mean... I... thought I'd try something new. You never know if it might be fun right?"

Neville's smile widened.

"You're just like your mum that way," he complimented.

Lacus smiled in return although deep inside she could not help but to think that her mum would have just blurted out the truth no matter how uncomfortable it was.

"So who are you going to pair up with?" Neville asked, looking around to see if anyone was waiting for Lacus.

"Actually, I..." Lacus began.

"Hey!"

Both Lacus and Neville turned to see Nathan Montague approaching them. Much to her dismay, Lacus felt her cheeks become warmer. She had no doubt that both Neville and Nathan could see that they were also turning slightly red.

"Do you have anyone to practice with?" Nathan asked.

At first Lacus stared at him in disbelief. Was he asking _her _to be his partner? This could not really be happening. But Nathan kept looking at her, clearly waiting for some sort of answer. Remembering that she had to give him one, Lacus shook her head.

"Perfect," Neville commented, patting both Lacus and Nathan on their shoulders. "Good luck!"

With that, Neville walked away to observe the others. Lacus watched him go. In the corner of her eye she saw that Nathan was looking at her. Against her will, her cheeks grew slightly warmer and although she kept telling herself to look at Nathan, she could not bring herself to. After what felt like two hours Nathan stepped forward and placed himself in front of Lacus.

"Should we get started then?" he suggested.

Lacus slowly raised her eyes slightly. He was smiling. Just the sight of that made her knees feel weak.

"Um... yeah, sure, I would..." she began.

Her blush became deep red as she realized that she was trying to say three things at once and failing miserably to express a coherent sentence. But either Nathan was deaf to it or he did not mind because the repulsed look that Lacus had expected never came. Instead he smiled and led her to the corner of the classroom where there was enough space for them to practise.

"You will have to go easy on me," Nathan urged, still smiling as he backed away to get some distance between them. "According to Professor Longbottom my wand movements could use some work."

"Oh, I don't think I need to do that. I'm not much of a genius either."

Perhaps it was because he was a few steps further from her, but Lacus managed to return the smile and speak without stuttering. Now that she had calmed down, she felt her heart beat faster not because of nervousness but rather in joy. How lucky was she that Nathan had asked her to practise with him? And Elaine had said that he had looked really happy when Lacus had told him that she would join the duelling club. Perhaps it wasn't just because she had been the first to say yes? Perhaps she did have a chance?

She grinned widely as she raised her wand and suddenly felt like she could not be happier.

"Expelliarmus!"

The wand flew out of Nathan's hands easily and Lacus caught it as it zoomed towards her. She glanced at the wand, studying the dark wood until she heard a pair of hands clap. She looked up and met Nathan's eyes.

"You're a natural at this," he complimented.

Lacus blushed.

"Thanks."

She tucked her hair behind her ear as she walked over to Nathan and returned his wand. Though Nathan had told her to go easy on him, she found that she did not have to. It must have been due to his natural modesty that Nathan had said that because Lacus thought that he was just as good as everyone else, if not better.

When Neville and Professor Flitwick were to demonstrate a defensive spell and asked everyone to gather around them to watch, Lacus looked at Nathan. He was listening attentively to every word the professors said and his eyes were so focused as he watched them perform the charm. His entire being was just focused on taking it all in and noticing every single detail. Lacus wondered how anyone could be so perfect. Nathan was smart, good looking and nice to everyone, even to her who had a habit of saying weird things. He could have picked anyone in the room to practise with, he was friends with all the guys and all the girls would die to get the chance to practise with him. Yet he had chosen her, for some reason. Lacus felt her heart skip a little faster.

"Should we begin?"

Blinking, Lacus snapped out of her thoughts. The crowd gathered around Professor Flitwick and Neville had dispersed- Everyone had gone back to their places and started to practise the charm that had just been demonstrated. Nathan was looking at Lacus, waiting for her to answer his question.

"Yes, sure," Lacus answered quickly.

They returned to the corner where they had stood before and stood with a few feet distance from each other.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Nathan announced, getting into a defensive position with his wand raised.

Lacus suddenly froze. What was she supposed to do? Her mind was blank, she had been too busy looking at Nathan and being caught up in her own thoughts that she had forgotten to pay attention to the charm she was supposed to use.

_I can't believe this!_

Panic rising within her, Lacus bit her lip and tried to think. Professor Flitwick and Neville had wanted them to practise some defensive spell, which was probably what Nathan was waiting to cast. But what sort of spell was she supposed to catch then?

Her hands started to feel clammy and she gripped her wand tightly. They could not have told the others to use a spell that did real damage. Even Lacus would have snapped out of her thoughts if there had been some sort of explosion or if Professor Flitwick had flown across the room. It had to be something easy, something harmless...

_T... something with a T... T...talle something..._

Nathan was still standing there, his wand raised and waiting for Lacus to cast the spell.

_Tera... talle... gra... or maybe it began with tara?_

She couldn't afford to think anymore, she had already taken too much time. Hesitating, Lacus raised her wand and pointed it at Nathan.

"Tentacullgra!"

As soon as the word came out of her mouth, she knew that it was not exactly right. Her hand wavered, marred by her nervousness, as she moved the wand. But by then it was too late to change anything and she could only stand there and watch the consequences.

And they spoke for themselves.

At first she thought that Nathan would be able to just block it. But the spell she had cast was not what he had expected and therefore he was caught off guard and his defensive spell had no effect. He stumbled back when Lacus' hex reached him, as if he had been pushed by an invisible force. Lacus immediately stepped forward.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Nathan found his balance again quickly and smiled at her.

"It's okay, I'm alright!"

He waved his hand in assurance. Lacus smiled and was just about to release a sigh of relief when she saw something.

The hand that Nathan was waving did not look quite right. Nathan had natural long and slender fingers but as Lacus watched him she saw that his fingers were growing longer and longer by the second. She started at the long fingers, which grew fast from being a few inches until they were at least a foot long. Something began to grow out on the skin of his fingers that looked like warts. Lacus could only stare in horror as more of them began to appear.

People started to gather around Nathan, who was too much in shock to do anything but stare with his mouth open. From the other side of the classroom, Professor Flitwick and Neville tried to get to Nathan.

"Excuse me! We need to get through!"

"Please make way!"

Nathan's fingers almost reached to the floor when his arms dropped limply. Lacus gasped loudly and covered her mouth as she realized what she had done. Those weren't warts on his fingers. They were suction cups.

_Tentacles.__ I've given him tentacles._

With all the students gathered around Nathan and the two professors having just made their way through the crowd and taken in the scene, no one noticed Lacus turning around and running out of the classroom.

* * *

Seven o' clock, sharp.

As Luna walked up to the front door of Augusta Longbottom's house, she tried to remember when was the last time that she had been to one of Augusta's dinner on time. Lacus was always the one considered with getting to places on time; Luna was not too concerned about that. She did not mind being early or late and preferred doing things in her own pace. But when it came to arriving at Mrs. Longbottom's house, she had always been on time. There was a simple reason for that.

Lacus was always with her.

It did not occur to Luna until she was standing by the front door. Ever since she had first left the country when she was eighteen she had not been to Mrs. Longbottom by herself. The first few years Mrs. Longbottom invited her and Rolf under the pretence that Mrs. Longbottom wanted to get to know Rolf. When Lacus was born, it was because she wanted to see Lacus. Never before had Mrs. Longbottom invited Luna alone.

It had to be some sort of important occasion. Neville's birthday had already past but perhaps it was Hannah's? Or great uncle Algie?

Stepping forward, Luna rang the doorbell. While waiting for someone to open the door, she leaned a little to her left so that she could get a glance of the sitting room window. The lights were on as usual but from her angle Luna couldn't see anything except for a bookshelf and a painting of King Arthur.

The door open so suddenly that Luna jumped back into position. Mrs. Longbottom stood there, holding up the door.

"Good evening, Luna," she greeted. "Come in."

"Good evening, Mrs. Longbottom."

Luna returned the greeting as she stepped inside the house. Save for the sound of the door closing behind her, the house was quiet. There was no chatter, no sounds of anyone walking around or drinks being poured and passed around. It was all eerily quiet, in a way it reminded Luna of what her own house was like when she came home at the end of the day.

She took off her robe and hung it up on the coat rack. Mrs. Longbottom stood by her side, waiting for her. Once she was done, Mrs. Longbottom started to head towards the sitting room and Luna followed.

There was simple explanation for the silence in the house. There wasn't anyone in the living room, not even Neville who usually made very little noise as he walked around. Luna let her eyes wander across the sitting room just to be sure. She couldn't even find one of Neville's daughters hiding under a table or behind the old piano. Perhaps they were running late. It would not be a surprise, Saturdays were busy at The Leaky Cauldron and Hannah might have a difficult time getting away on time.

"I hope you did not have to rush to get here," Mrs. Longbottom said and made a gesture for Luna to sit. "I don't know what it's like with you young people anymore, you seem to be enjoying working on Saturdays."

"Oh no," Luna answered, sitting down on the sofa. "I just went to the office for a few hours today."

Mrs. Longbottom made a face, as if she did not quite approve of it, but said nothing. Instead she walked over a large, dark wooden cabinet in the corner. The doors of the cabinet opened with a squeak and revealed several bottles with liquids of varying colour.

"Would you like a drink before dinner?" she asked.

It was a question but Luna saw that Mrs. Longbottom was taking out two glasses and had reached for one of the bottles with a deep burgundy colour.

"Yes please," she answered and accepted the drink that Mrs. Longbottom had already poured for her.

Mrs. Longbottom poured a drink for herself and then sat down on the sofa opposite of Luna. She sipped her drink, closing her eyes as she swallowed and let out a satisfied sigh.

"I always enjoyed this brand," she told. "Neville first bought it for me when he and Hannah went to Portugal on their honeymoon. I make him buy one bottle for me every time they go there on holiday."

Luna smiled. She held the glass in her hand but was in no hurry to finish the drink. She did not particularly enjoy this kind of spirits, finding them rather heavy for some reason.

"So when are Neville and Hannah?" she asked casually.

Mrs. Longbottom took another sip of her drink and waved her hand.

"Oh no, they're not coming."

Luna stared at Mrs. Longbottom and blinked.

"They're not?" she repeated.

"Neville is too busy with work this week and Saturday is the busiest day at The Leaky Cauldron," Mrs. Longbottom explained.

Luna still stared at her.

"But if they're not coming and Lacus is at school, then why..." she began but stopped herself.

If there was one thing she had learned over the years, it was that there was a difference between speaking uncomfortable truths and speaking words that could hurt someone.

Mrs. Longbottom gave her a sharp look and Luna suddenly felt small and little where she was sitting.

It was a natural question. Neville was always there whenever Luna and Lacus came over for dinner. Hannah was there most of the time, but sometimes missed out because she had to work and when that happened Neville would bring over the girls as well. Luna could not think of one time when one of them had not been present at the dinners, much less a dinner where it was just her and Mrs. Longbottom. It was unexpected, not to mention a little strange having a dinner just the two of them.

However, she was not sure that Mrs. Longbottom saw it that way. That sharp look in her eyes stayed and when Luna opened her mouth to explain, Mrs. Longbottom raised her glass and emptied her drink in one swallow.

"I think the roast is ready now," she spoke, her voice suddenly cold. "Will you join me at the table?"

Finding that she had no other option, Luna nodded and tried to smile. Mrs. Longbottom, however, did not even acknowledge the smile as she rose and walked out of the sitting room. Luna set her glass aside and followed Mrs. Longbottom into the dining room that lay on the opposite side of the hallway.

Luna stopped there at the dining table when Mrs. Longbottom disappeared into the kitchen quickly. She stood behind the chair at the end of the dining table, resting her hands on the back of the chair and not knowing what to do. Should she go into the kitchen and help? Normally that would not be a problem for her, but what she had said had affected Mrs. Longbottom the wrong way. She might not even be welcome into the kitchen.

Lacking other options, Luna remained standing by the table and looked around. A crisp white cloth covered the table, which was already set for two. Mrs. Longbottom had set the table with her best silver and charmed three blue candles to float in the air around the centre. Luna looked at the two sets of silverware and porcelain one each side of the long, rectangular wooden table. She still wondered why Mrs. Longbottom had wanted to have a dinner with just the two of them. The table had seemed big enough when four people sat around it like last time and it seemed even bigger with just plates and glasses set on each end.

A bowl of salad came flying out of the kitchen and settled nicely on the table. Luna looked up to see Mrs. Longbottom stand in the doorway to the kitchen with her wand raised and directing a large plate of lamb roast to land on the dining table. Next up were two plates with potatoes and a gravy boat.

"Please sit down," Mrs. Longbottom said politely when everything was set.

She sat down at her end of the table and Luna at the other. With a wave of her wand, Mrs. Longbottom made their plates fly over to the dishes and returned with a generous serving of lamb roast, potatoes, vegetables and gravy. It wasn't often that Luna ate so much meat, but even she could admit that Mrs. Longbottom's roasts were always mouth-watering.

"This looks good," Luna complimented genuinely.

"Thank you."

They began eating in silence; the only time a sound was made was when the knives and forks scraped against the porcelain plates. Physically it was only about seven or eight feet between them but the distance between them felt endless.

Not knowing what to say, Luna looked up and sought Mrs. Longbottom's eyes. The older woman was eating slowly, one small bite at the time. To Luna she had hardly aged a day from when they first met but that had been almost twenty years ago. Twenty years was more than half of Luna's life and it was more than the time Luna had with her father.

Noticing that she was being stared at, Mrs. Longbottom looked up and faced her.

"What is it?" she asked.

Luna shrugged.

"Nothing... nothing in particular."

Shaking her head, Mrs. Longbottom cut up the potato on her plate.

"So how is Lacus doing at school?" she asked, perhaps just to get some conversation going. "Does she write often?"

"Every day," Luna answered, moving her fork around the plate but not feeling like eating. "Sometimes twice."

"She's a good girl," Mrs. Longbottom complimented. "Responsible and sensible, you don't know how lucky you are to have a child like that."

_I do,_ Luna thought. _And it makes me miss her more._

But she kept that thought to herself.

"It's just as difficult for a parent to be away from their child as it is for the child itself," Mrs. Longbottom went on, as if having read Luna's thoughts. "The difference is that we are not allowed to show it, we are to let our children spread our wings and only return whenever they feel like it. It does not matter how much we miss them, sometimes they are just too consumed and busy with everything else to remember that we are still here, that we miss them..."

As she spoke, Mrs. Longbottom seemed to channel all her strength into cutting up a tough part of the lamb chop. Luna had a distinct feeling that there was something going on beneath the surface.

"But Neville visits you quite often, doesn't he?" she wondered.

"Oh, he does!" Mrs. Longbottom replied proudly. "Comes over for dinner at least once a week and brings Hannah and the girls with him. Hannah is wonderful too, she comes over on Wednesdays with the girls and cooks supper for all of us."

Giving up on the tough piece of meat, Mrs. Longbottom put down her knife and fork with a sigh. Luna had stopped eating long ago and was staring at Mrs. Longbottom quietly. If all was well with Neville and Hannah, then what was wrong?

Luna had had enough of the constant guessing to herself.

"Is something wrong?" she asked plainly.

Leaning back in her chair, Mrs. Longbottom looked at Luna fiercely and crossed her arms.

"Neville comes over at least once a week and tells me what is going on in his life," she began. "You, I have to owl and invite to find out!"

Luna dropped her fork on the plate but did not even notice it. Her eyes were locked with Mrs. Longbottom's and her mind just trying to process what the latter had just said.

"You have been back for almost a month, you have been working at the Quibbler for at least a few weeks," Mrs. Longbottom went on. "Aside from that, I know nothing about what is going on in your life right now! Not how you are doing, how it goes with work... If I didn't invite you here I would probably never know! Is it too much to ask of an old lady like me with too much time on her hands to have some sort of involvement in your life?!"

Silence.

To some it might have been an uncomfortable silence. Being yelled at during supper could certainly be classified as uncomfortable. But to Luna, it was the opposite. The words Mrs. Longbottom had spoken, or yelled, stuck inside of her. Most of all, it was the way Mrs. Longbottom had compared Neville to her as if they were the same kind, as if they both were her grandchildren.

The thought of that made Luna feel warm on the inside.

"I met Harry Potter the other day."

Mrs. Longbottom raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

Luna nodded.

"He was working on the ice cream parlour when I was on my way home from work."

"I read about that in the Prophet," Mrs. Longbottom said. "But apparently he refuses to release any statement about quitting his job and buying that ice cream parlour. The reporters have been hounding him day and night and he still refuses to speak."

"He asked me to take a look inside."

"Did he?"

Mrs. Longbottom's eyes were wide open. She leaned forward, propping her elbows up on the table.

"What did it look like?"

Luna's smile widened.

"Well, it was kind of the same as before... the old sign was still there. The only thing he did was repaint the walls but I thought that it was a little too much of old Florean Fortescue and not so much Harry Potter..."


End file.
